As announced in this year's budget, the state government has already inaugurated 11 new arts and science colleges in Tamil Nadu for the academic year 2025-26 and Chief Minister MK Stalin recently said that four more will be opened soon. However, the lack of fresh recruitment of staff, particularly teaching faculty, has irked the staff members who are already working in government arts and science colleges across Tamil Nadu, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
The higher education department will spend around Rs 25.27 crore in the first year to run the 11 colleges, each of which will offer five new courses and admit 280 students initially. Though the department has created 12 teaching posts in each of these colleges for this year, the staff have not been freshly recruited, instead transferred from other colleges on deputation.
Alleging that the 175 government arts and science colleges in Tamil Nadu, including the newly inaugurated ones, are already facing a staff crunch due to no recruitment in the past 10 years, academicians have urged the state government to focus on recruitment instead of devising ways to run the show by temporary arrangements.
"In the last four years, 35 new arts and science colleges have been opened but not a single new teacher has been appointed. Besides opening new colleges, the government has increased 15,000 seats in the existing colleges this year. There is already a vacancy of around 7,500 permanent faculty members in the existing colleges. Transferring teachers to new colleges will definitely affect the quality of education," said S Suresh, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers' Association (TNGCTA).
A faculty member, who has been transferred from a central district to a new college in a northern district, said he has been transferred even though his department in the parent college had only three faculty members.
However, he did not share details about the student to teacher ratio in the department in his parent college.
Highlighting that the government has reduced the number of sanctioned teaching posts for the newly-established colleges from 17 to 12, K Ganeshan, a retired government college principal, alleged, "If you reduce the number of teachers, then it it is an indication that the new colleges are opened merely to increase gross enrolment ratio (GER) and not to impart quality education."
However, officials in the higher education department stressed that they have deputed teachers only after a thorough analysis. "We have not randomly selected and deputed teachers to the new colleges. Only from those colleges and departments which are adequately staffed, we have been pulling staff for the new colleges," said an official, adding that the new vacancies have been created as per the number of seats and courses that are introduced to ensure no shortage of staff in the new colleges.
According to Suresh, the last recruitment of faculty members for government arts and science colleges was done in 2015. Though the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) issued a notification in 2023 for recruiting 4,000 assistant professors, the process halted midway after it got entangled in legal litigation, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
The 11 new colleges have come up in Cheyyur in Chengalpattu, Alandur in Chennai, Panruti in Cuddalore, Natham in Dindigul, Kolakkanatham in Perambalur, Manamadurai in Sivaganga, Thiruvidaimaruthur in Thanjavur, Coonoor in the Nilgiris, Ottapidaram in Thoothukudi, Muthupettai in Tiruvarur, and Vikravandi in Villupuram, while the remaining four colleges, which was announced recently by the chief minister, will come up in KV Kuppam in Vellore, Thuraiyur in Tiruchy, Ulundurpet in Kallakurichi and Chengam in Tiruvannamalai.
