Chennai, July 8
"Procure or perish" — this is the diktat for college teachers in self-financing institutions in Tamil Nadu during this admission season.

While students as well their parents are rejoicing over good results their wards obtained in the plus two examinations, it is just the opposite for teachers in private colleges.

They have been told to venture out and allure more students, failing which their services will be terminated.

As a result, many teachers during the summer holidays took a crash course in marketing!

Said a college teacher, "I have no option. Our management has clearly said that only those who help the college get new students will continue in the job."

Left with no other option, teachers like him in many of the self-financing colleges have already begun talking to prospective students and their parents on a daily basis over phone and in person.

A lecturer even pasted posters at select towns in neighbouring the Kerala trying to attract students to his "prestigious educational institution".

Said another lecturer, "It is below the dignity of the teaching profession. The universities or the State Council for Higher Education should monitor the working conditions and regulations of teachers and take action."

Some private managements of such institutions have been practising it for over five years.

One college manager requesting anonymity said, "We have to withstand competition. The teachers need a livelihood. Of course, we may not be really furthering the cause of education."

Though the teachers regret working as marketing executives, some of them also earn more than their salaries as commissions on the basis of students they enroll.

It is not an unknown thing in Tamil Nadu. According to a former vice-chancellor of a university, "Utilising teachers in such marketing business is not good for higher education. In fact, a few years ago I had asked self-financing managements during a meeting not to employ teachers as executives after a principal complained that the varsity was not doing justice to the working conditions of the teachers in affiliated colleges.”

An office-bearer of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) explained, “The teachers in private colleges have no job security.”

While the management throws out such ‘unfaithful and inefficient’ teachers every year, many quit on their own due to “unfavourable working conditions”.

He lamented, “With new teachers, particularly freshers, replacing the experienced ones every year, the quality of teaching suffers badly.”

But what is most surprising is that even final-year students are asked to be “brand ambassadors” of their respective institutions of higher learning. And as a reward, given high internal marks and commissions as a project - “earn while you learn”.