Ban on extension lecturers rolled back

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 3

Faced with protests by college students and under pressure from government college principals over its decision against employing “extension lecturers (guest teachers)”, the Haryana Higher Education Department today “rolled back” its decision.

Vikas Yadav, Director, Higher Education, said the department had never decided against employing extension lecturers in government colleges. “There was some confusion in communication to the government colleges. In fact, we merely wanted the workload to be calculated. We are sending fresh directions to government colleges to go ahead and recruit extension lecturers on ‘per lecture’ basis,” Yadav explained, adding that those who had advertised could begin interviews to recruit them right away.

Sources, however, maintained that in view of the bitter experience of the government with employment of guest teachers in government schools, the department had decided to do away with extension lecturers.

Fearing that the government could be drawn into a legal tangle with extension lecturers seeking regular employment and could face long-drawn protests as has been the case with school guest teachers, the decision to manage the new academic session with the existing regular staff was conveyed to the colleges.

However, the decision boomeranged because there were not enough regular hands to teach all classes and the government had absolutely no back-up plan to deal with the crisis.

With students taking to the roads over staff shortage in Mahendergarh today and principals having no quick-fix solution, studies suffered in government colleges across the state.

The department’s decision to “roll back” this change in policy and go back to the pattern of hiring contractual staff has come as a big relief to students and principals alike.

As many as 2,449 extension lecturers are employed in government colleges of Haryana based on the existing workload against the existing 1,723 vacancies at Rs 250 per lecture with a maximum of Rs 18,000 per month.