Hyderabad : Even as All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has threatened to penalise colleges that do not adhere to pay scales for teachers, the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Hyderabad, has revealed that it has no mechanism in place to check such irregularities by affiliated colleges.
Colleges are also required to and maintain the student-faculty ratio. As per the AICTE’s new norms, if colleges do not follow these rules, it may lead to suspension of admission process or reduction in intake in tech institutions.
The technical body’s latest rules have come at a time when teachers of Aligarh Muslim varsity, Delhi Varsity and Jawaharlal Nehru varsity are protesting against the non-adherence to pay scales and that recommendations of the UGC’s 7th pay review be made public.
N Yadaiah, registrar of JNTU-H, said that though it carries out regular inspections across affiliate colleges, they only look into the academic aspects. “We see if there are enough classes, labs and library, enough staff for students. We don’t look into the financial aspect,” he said.
He added that if they receive any complaints from teachers, they will forward the same to the Admission & Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC) and AICTE.
“However, so far we have not received any such complaints from any affiliated college,” he clarified. According to the sixth pay scale, while a government/aided engineering college assistant professors with M.Tech degree earn `45,360 per month, their counterparts in private colleges draw `32,400 (mostly on paper).
Rafia Sultana, an M Tech student of a college at Patancheru, also serves as a faculty member for the first and second year B Tech students, and is paid abysmally low. “Most of us work for as low as `12,000 per month,” she says.
Admitting that low pay coupled with poor benefits for teachers adversely affects the quality of education imparted, Yadaiah, said, “Teachers feel angry and this reflects in their teaching.” Only a handful of the 48,000 teachers working in 800 professional colleges, including 212 engineering colleges across the state avail the benefits of service, salaries according to the norm, superannuation benefits and leave rules.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference from the information provided at online news portals.
