More than 7,000 teacher posts are lying vacant in government and aided colleges across Tamil Nadu. This has also led to a lot of unemployment among young teachers who are longing to get UGC-approved salaries.
Speaking to TNIE, Government College Teachers' Association (GCTA) President, T Veeramani, said that from 2006-11 as many as 3,500 appointments had been made by the government. Then, from 2011-2021 only 1,000 appointments were made. "During the AIADMK government period, TNTRB had issued a notification to recruit 2,331 Assistant Professors on October 4, 2019 for 73 subjects to fill up vacancies in Government Arts and Science Colleges across the state. Then, the government changed and DMK came to power. Till now the government has not made any announcements on earlier notification of recruitment", he said.
Speaking to TNIE, President of Tamil Nadu All Government UGC Qualified Guest Lecturer Association, V Thangaraj, said, "As many as 3,500 UGC qualified teaching staff are working as Guest lecturers (GLs) in Government Arts and Science Colleges and getting consolidated salary of Rs 20,000 alone for more than 15 years without any benefits including maternity leave for women guest lecturers and leave."
He urged the Tamil Nadu Government to provide an internal reservation of 50 percent to GLs in the appointment of Assistant professors vacancies in Government Arts and Science Colleges. He appealed to the Government to pay Rs 50,000 to guest lecturers as per UGC norms and said that states of Haryana and Punjab are already paying this amount to their guest lecturers.
TNIE contacted Principal Secretary to Higher Education D Karthikeyan and Director of Collegiate Education Poorna Chandran. But, both of them were unavailable to comment on the issue. Responding to this issue, an official from the Higher Education Department said that it is a policy decision and that the government needs to make an announcement.
