AICTE - Technical Education in India

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AICTE asked to clarify pay scale order


The All-India Medical and Engineering Colleges Association

have urged

the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

to clarify its standon the implementation of pay scales in unaided institutions

in the light of the Supreme Court judgment in the TMA Pai case.

In a memorandum to the AICTE, the Association president, T. D. Naidu, said that

hitherto all the colleges which were members of the Association

were recruiting teaching staff

and fixing their pay according to their qualification and ability.

While so, the AICTE had directed all the member - colleges
to pay the scales fixed by it
to the teachers , librarians and physical education personnel.

Fixing such pay - scales amounted to interference in the autonomy of the institutions
and compelling them to pay the pay scales fixed by the AICTE.

It was only the management that could assess the ability and expertise of the teachers and remuneration was paid on the basis of the practical assessment made by it.

If the uniform pay scales fixed by the AICTE was paid then there could not be
any assessment of the ability, sincerity, capacity, knowledge and teaching expertise of the teachers, and the management would be compelled to pay huge salaries
even to non - working, non - cooperative and incapable teachers.

The Association said many of its member - colleges were being run by
educational and charitable societies without any profit motive and in the absence of any aid
from the Government, they would find it difficult to implement the new pay scales and
they would be forced to close down their colleges.

The Association said that bureaucratic or governmental interference
in the administration of private unaided institution would undermine their a utonomy
and would be against the judgment in the ' TMA Pai Case',

which had categorically stated that there should not be any interference
in the appointment, disciplinary powers, admission of students, and fees to be charged.

Its grievance was that the AICTE had unilaterally fixed the revised pay scales
without giving it an opportunity; the Association said
and requested the AICTE not to implement the revised scales for members of the Association.

The AICTE was also urged to instruct the Affiliating Universities and
Regional Offices in this regard.

Temporary lecturers

In several government and aided collegesin India, temporary lecturers are paid a
paltry sum per month as honorarium, that is insufficient in terms of inflationary
trends existing and the ever-increasingcost of living.

In most of the cases, these temporary lecturers are Ph D holders, and by the time they take up such assignments they would have already beenmarried and started a family.

It is atrocious that these lecturers have to maintaintheir families with such low salaries.

Their job being ‘temporary’ in nature, is not a justifying explanation for such low salaries.

Nowadays, even kindergartenteachers are better paid than temporary
lecturers of Government and aided colleges.

It is painful to note that these temporary lecturers work for several years ( sometimes for more than 7 years) with the same low salaries.

At the end of the day the only benefit that they get is
teaching experience which might help them in case of any recruitment for permanent
positions.

We have the MinimumWages Act to protect daily workers, coolies
and other labourers in the un organized sector, from any kind of exploitation.

However, many labourers still receivewages that are far less than those prescribed
by the Government through theAct.

However, for temporary lecturers
there is no such protection from any law.

With the latest Sixth Pay Commission’s
recommendations under consideration ofthe Government, it would be a justice
done to the temporary lecturers if a fair and decent consolidated pay is fixed per
month for them.

In the case of private colleges and universities, most of them
take fresh postgraduates as lecturers ( who may not have NET certificates) and
pay low salaries, though they advertise that they follow AICTE norms and pay
UGC scales.

These salaries are paltrywhen compared with the capitation fee
that runs into several lakhs taken byprivate engineering, medical and other
colleges and universities.

In line with AICTE we should have some standards
adopted and followed by all our Government colleges and universities.

These standards, addition to ‘NAAC’ accreditation,could be on par with ‘ISO’ standards.

Standard of science

Apart from the honours and titles conferredon people who do good research
(which cannot be bestowed on everyonedoing reasonably original and standard
research), the best way to judge the qualityof research is to look for publications
in standard journals.

Publication of researchresults is a service done to the society,
considering the fact that publicmoney is used for a majority of our research endeavours.

Extending this argument, it is imperative that publications
are made in well-circulated journals, rather than in obscure ones.

Renowned journals have excellent editorial policiesand expert referees, so that almost always
only good papers get published item.

Hence, publishing in these journals is not easy.

But then the bar has beenthlowered in our country by spawning several
‘cottage-industry journals’, which publish anything that is in typed form.

Of late, such publications have become amenace in procedures such as selection
of candidates for a job,promotions and even considering a research proposal for
funding.

It becomes the job of the reviewerto discern true publications from
bogus ones.

I suggest that some recognizedbody such as the UGC list the standard journals in each field that are being published from India, to make the task of the reviewers easy.

This would be similar to its website listing fake universities and colleges.