Teachers' stir: A fight that came late

By A.Jayaram

BANGALORE, FEB. 18. Those observing the college teachers' protest over the Government's decision effecting a 15 per cent cut in grant-in-aid to private aided colleges, cannot but feel that it is belated. They should have protested when the announcement regarding the cut was made by the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, while presenting the Budget for 2000-2001 in March 2000.

Many of those who refuse to buy the Government's argument that the educational institutions had stabilised and could raise their own resources (as stated in the Budget speech) point out that economies in education could be effected in many other ways. There is wastage and misuse of public funds from the primary school to the university level. One of them is the better known misuse of crores of rupees of grants at the school level by unscrupulous private managements who exploit the teachers.

When it comes to university education, the one issue that is generally raised is that of illegal promotion of teachers and the wastage of crores of rupees of public funds on account of it. The illegal promotions in at least two universities -- Bangalore and Gulbarga -- are often cited. It is stated that while an inquiry of sorts by the Controller of State Accounts was held with regard to them in Gulbarga University, Bangalore University has been left untouched.

Very often the comment is that there are more number of professors than Readers and lecturers in some departments and in one or two extreme cases, more number of professors than students, thanks to what is called the "Merit Promotion Scheme." In contrast was the situation till the early 1980s when even teachers with doctorates from prestigious universities were made to retire as lecturers. A case in point was that of the well- known primatologist, the late Dr. M.D.Parthasarathy who had the mortification of retiring as lecturer in the Bangalore University's Department of Zoology despite holding a Ph.D from the Purdue University of the U.S. Earlier, the University of Mysore had the dubious distinction of denying professorship in Kannada to two eminent teachers and litterateurs, Mr. V. Seetharamaiah and Mr. G.P.Rajarathnam, though the same university had in the late 1940s and early 1950s appointed a good number of persons who were in their twenties as professors!

At least one specific complaint regarding illegal promotions in Bangalore and Gulbarga universities under the "Merit Promotion Scheme" and "Career Advancement Scheme" had been made to the Government last year by Dr. M.P.Venkatappa, former professor of Physical Chemistry, Bangalore University and member of the Senate. He had contended that they had been carried out in violation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms. He had noted that such promotions in Bangalore University took place during 1983-87 and again in 1994. A total of 67 professors and 69 Readers had been given such promotions in Bangalore University in 1994. Dr. Venkatappa had further said that one of the beneficiaries of the scheme, when it was in operation in the 1980s, Dr. A.M.Pathan, had now risen to the position of Vice- Chancellor of Karnatak University. He was earlier Registrar of Bangalore University.

It may be mentioned here that after the Government implemented the old UGC scales with effect from November 1988, it had also been laid down that recruitment to the posts of lecturers, Readers and professors in universities should be on the basis on merit through all-India advertisement. The "Merit Promotion Scheme" was suspended from June 1987. In fact, in September 1984 the Karnataka High Court (Mr. Justice M.P.Chandrakantha Raj Urs) had in the case of N.S.Somashekar Vs. Bangalore University quashed the "Merit Promotion Scheme" (1983 statutes) as violative of the Karnataka Universities Act of 1976. The court had said: ``That the scheme has been recommended by the August body known as the UGC does not make it any more valid as it offends the Act. Nor the fact that other universities have followed the scheme."

However, Bangalore University was determined to promote its teachers and issued fresh statutes in 1994 under the same scheme. It went on to say that although the 1983 statutes had been struck down by the High Court, the persons promoted under them should be deemed to have been promoted under the present statutes. What was of further interest was that the then Chancellor (Mr. Khurshed Alam Khan) gave his assent to the 1992 statutes.

Dr. Venkatappa and others have alleged that in several cases the promotions were violative of the university's own statute (1994) which, among other things, says that a teacher to be eligible for promotion under the scheme should have completed permanent service for a minimum period of eight academic years in the respective cadre, should have done outstanding work in the areas of teaching, research, book review, publications, curricular and examination activities ... deserving recognition of merit and consequential promotion. Demanding a special audit in the matter of illegal promotions, he had urged the Government to withhold the new UGC pay scales (implemented in 1996) to the merit promotees and save public funds.

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