College education in Tripura severely hit

AGARTALA, July 6 ? As the talks between the agitating part time college teachers and government came a cropper yesterday the college education in the State seems to have reached its nadir. More than 400 part-time college teachers are on strike from Thursday last demanding better remuneration and guarantee in services. A delegation of the Part Time College Teachers Association (PTCTA) on July 5 met Education Minister Anil Sarkar pressing their demand. But the meeting came a cropper as the government turned down their demand of guarantee on continuation part-time status till 58 years of age (of the teacher) and better remuneration. The education Minister instead asked them to withdraw the strike for good. Higher Education director Mridul Das was also present in the meeting. ?At present, we are getting about Rs 3000 per month. We told the Minister to give us Rs 2000 but also give us guarantee of service till 58 years of age, as many of the part time college teachers have already crossed or on the verge of crossing the age bar for any other government service, but he declined. He told us about some UGC norms and to continue our service the state government alone can take the decision,? said Prabir Chakrabarty, general secretary of the PTCTA. ?The meeting fell through and we are firm on carrying out our strike,? he declared. Meanwhile, fax messages from many colleges have started reaching Agartala asking the higher authorities to take necessary measures immediately to ensure regular classes. The principals of many colleges indicated that it would be impossible to run the college without the part-time teachers. In fact, there are colleges like Kamalpur College which is run entirely by part-time teachers. Sources in the higher education department said there is hardly anything government can do in this regard. ?The part-time teachers are provided with a remuneration, perhaps the highest in the country and at the same time there are some teachers who do not have the necessary qualifications to teach in the colleges as specified by the UGC,? sources said adding they still enjoy the previlege as there is a shortage of qualified lecturers. ?We are forced to go with the existing system of contract basis as we do not find the NET/SLET qualified teachers despite dereserving a huge number of posts earlier this year,? said the source. ?Earlier this year the department through the TPSC conducted an interview for 94 posts for lecturers but got only 43 candidates who had the UGC norms to be a lecturer and 38 of them had already joined,? sources added. ?And as such we have still a shortage of 120 lecturers in the colleges out of a total sanctioned posts of 452. Now onward even if anyone is recruited on contract basis, the UGC guidelines will be strictly followed,? sources mentioned. The BSc, BA and BCom examination papers will now be scrutinised by the teachers of the university, the source said adding that in the process the results may be delayed.