The Hindu : Talks with college teachers make no progress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 27, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Talks with college teachers make no progress

By K. Ramachandran

CHENNAI Aug. 26. As the strike by government college teachers entered the sixth day on Monday, serious efforts by the Government to end the stalemate through negotiations made little headway.

On the ground, students, including members of student organisations, joined the strike and held demonstrations in different parts of the State. Teachers held demonstrations in front of government colleges.

In Chennai, students of the Presidency College staged a road roko, but were chased away by a strong posse of police. Students of the Queen Mary's College for Women and members of the Students Federation of India at Kattur, Tiruchi, burnt copies of the University Amendment Act, the TN Government College Teachers Association general secretary, V. Swaminthan said.

The Association also took exception to the ``vindictive arrest of women students of the Madurai Meenakshi Women's College who took part in a demonstration''.

Members of the Government College Teachers Manram staged a demonstration in front of Presidency Colege and Nandanam Arts College, Chennai. The GCTM members would participate in a fast being organised by trade unions, government employees and teacher organisations.

A round of `informal talks' was held in the city today with representatives of the TNGCTA, but no meeting ground was reached. Leaders of the TNGCTA and senior academic administrators refused to divulge details of the deliberations, but only hinted that not much progress was made.

Teachers claim that the government move to convert colleges into constituents of universities, besides resulting in loss of their government employee status, would extract a high social cost. Fees would go up, some courses would have to be treated `unviable' and more importantly, higher educational opportunities for SC/ST students would be imperilled.

The Government maintains that while the teachers were concerned that their government employee status would be affected, the colleges themselves remained stagnant, both in number as well in the academic development. The situation could be remedied if they became university constituents. The TNGCTA opposed the official announcement that 750 guest lecturers were to be recruited to fill vacancies in the government colleges. Dr. Swaminathan said it was a ``clear exploitation of unemployed youth''. (Guest lecturers are paid Rs.100 for each teaching hour for a maximum 40 hours a month.) He said the TNGCTA wanted 1,040 vacancies filled up, but the Government refused to do it for financial constraints.

He reiterated the demand for holding of talks with the association to restore peace on the campus after withdrawing the ``anti-student, anti-teachers University Act Amendment Bill''.

The teachers are on an indefinite strike from August 21.

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