Port Blair, June 11: Colleges in Andaman and Nicobar Islands are mostly run by guest lecturers as number of candidates clearing UPSE exams (for the post of lecturer) remains always low. The situation is so bad that if these Guest Lecturers stop working it would be difficult for the Administration to run all these local colleges viz, Jawaharlal Nehru Rajkiya Mahavidyala (JNRM), Tagore Government College of Education (TGCE) and Mahatma Gandhi Government College (MGGC).
Earlier, the University Grants Commission had laid down the payment structure for guest lecturers as Rs. 250/- per lecture with a limit of five thousand per month.
But later, the Pay Review Committee found both the payment per lecture and the monthly limit to extremely low especially when most of the teachers had minimum qualifications required for the position of a lecturer and they had also qualified the NET/SET examination.
The Committee soon recommended that Guest or Part Time Teachers who possess the minimum qualifications for the post of an Assistant Professor should be paid Rs. 1000/- per lecture to a maximum of Rs. 25000/- per month.
In February 2010 the UGC accepted the recommendations and subsequently a letter, clearly mentioning about Revised Guidelines for the Scheme of Appointment / Honorarium of Guest/Part-Time Teachers, was sent by the UGC to the Registrar, All Central/Deemed/State Universities, All State Education Secretaries and All Regional Offices of the U GC.
In the letter it was clearly mentioned that “the UGC has accepted the recommendation of VI Pay Review Committee regarding revised guidelines for the Scheme of Appointment / Honorarium of Guest/Part Time Teachers.
The UGC has decided that the Guest/Part-time Teachers who possess the minimum qualification for the post of an Assistant Professor should be paid Rs.1,000/- per lecture to a maximum of Rs.25,000/- per month,” the UGC mentioned. As per UGC these guidelines came into force w.e.f.1.1.2010 and the copy of the recommendation has already reached the Secretariat long back, it is learnt.
But sadly, even after two long years, the new guidelines are not being followed by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration.
At present, for Guest Lecturers engaged by JNRM, Port Blair and MGGC, Mayabunder meeting both ends have become extremely difficult as these poor Lectures are forced to work in the higher educational Govt. institutions in a very meager salary amount.
“We have been continuously requesting the concerned authorities for enhancing our salary at least up to a minimum of Rs 25,000 monthly, but all our request seems to have fallen into deaf ears”, said an annoyed Guest Lecturer who have been working in a local college for the last six years.
Even teachers engaged under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) are better paid. Their monthly salary is Rs 16,000, which is far higher than ours”, he said.
These Guest Lecturers are educationally very highly qualified and for obtaining a Lecturer job, they have to qualify National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by UPSC. Despite bag loaded with certificates and accolades, their salary and incentives are nearly negligible.
On one hand the guest lecturers are suffering heavily but on the other hand the top officials of A & N Administration say that the Administration is waiting for an official confirmation from UGC.
“When the matter was sent to the finance section, the finance section asked us to cross check this matter with UGC. They wanted to know whether these UGC guidelines are applicable for these Islands. We have written a letter to the Pondicherry University to clarify the matter because our colleges are affiliated to Pondicherry University but we did not get any satisfactory reply yet,” Mr. Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, the Secretary Education told Andaman Sheekha recently.
The added that in reply the Pondicherry University had mentioned that the University itself is waiting for an official confirmation from UGC.
“I know that this is a genuine issue. I totally agree with it and I am for it but only thing is we are waiting for some confirmation from UGC,” the Secretary added.
