Posted: 02 Sep 2015 12:56 AM PDT
More than 2,000 Thiruvalluvar varsity teachers under-qualified
In a shocking revelation, more
than half of the 4,240 teaching staff in the colleges affiliated to
Thiruvalluvar University in Vellore district have been found to be
under-qualified, Madras High Court was informed today.
A bench comprising Chief Justice
Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sathyanarayanan expressed surprise at
the presence of under-qualified staff at the colleges, which the
University Grants Commission inquired into consequent to the court’s
direction on a PIL.
It was submitted that of the
4,240 teaching staff, 2,270 had not even applied for approval of their
appointments by the university, confirming the UGC’s worst fear that a
large number of teaching faculty at college-level are under- qualified
to hold the post of assistant professors.
“If the pool of talent is too
small, how will you fill vacancies? What if you go without teachers,”
the court asked the counsel for UGC, PR Gopinathan.
To this, Gopinathan said that in
that, the case colleges concerned must write to UGC, which could relax
the criteria or grant more time for complying with regulations.
The matter relates to a contempt
petition filed by a retired professor, I Elangovan, for non-compliance
with the court’s April 29, 2014, order regarding appointment of
qualified teaching staff in the colleges coming under the university.
As per UGC Regulations of 2010,
an assistant professor (formerly lecturer) shall have at least 55 per
cent marks in post-graduate courses and possess NET/SLET pass
certificate, or a Ph.D from a recognised university, Gopinathan said.
The petitioner had claimed that
only about 25 per cent of the teaching staff in the over 118 university
colleges were qualified to hold the assistant professor post.
He said that UGC had not
initiated any action despite specific orders of the court, pursuant to
which the former had formed a five-member committee to go into the
issue.
The counsel for the university,
however, said that much of the violations in minimum qualification
criterion were noticed only in self-financing colleges and that the
university had sent notices to all the erring colleges.
They were expected to send in their replies by September 14, he added.
Noting that UGC should conduct
more random studies in this regard, the court posted the matter to
November 26 for further proceedings.
