Bangalore: On-the-spot relief to teachers problem

Bengaluru, Oct 21: The Department of Collegiate Education on Monday, Oct 20 began a new experiment by holding an 'education adalat' under which on-the-spot relief was given to college teachers facing problems, including issues relating to promotions, incentives, placements and settlement of pensions.

The adalat, which is held for the first time in the State, was attended by top-ranking officials of the Education Department and a large number of teachers.

Explaining the intentions of the adalat, Collegiate Education Commissioner N Nagambika Devi noted that in most of the cases, college teachers were required to approach six to eight offices to seek settlement of issues related to service matters and placements (promotions and increments). The adalat would put an end to such a time-consuming process by making all the officers concerned to be present at one forum so that immediate decision could be taken on service-related issues. Files regarding service matters had been summoned from all the offices to the adalat.

A maximum deadline of one month was given for the officials to dispose of the petitions in cases where it was not possible to provide on-the-spot relief. An endorsement was also given to the petitioners regarding the deadlines.

Ms. Nagambika Devi said the department was planning to make such adalats a regular feature by holding them at least once in three months. Also, it wanted to hold such adalats at the regional level for the convenience of teachers in district centres. It was considering the possibility of holding separate adalats for the non-teaching staff in colleges.

Higher Education Minister Arvind Limbavali, who inaugurated the adalat, promised the teachers of redressing all their grievances related to service matters. 'Now that a system has been put in place to solve your problems, I expect you to focus completely on improving your colleges, especially the standard of education.'

Reminding teachers that the investment on infrastructure in government colleges was much more than that in private colleges, he called upon them to ensure that the government colleges competed with their private counterparts in terms of offering quality education. 'We should create such an environment wherein the government colleges become synonymous for high educational standards and attract talented students from all sections of society including the rich families who are now preferring private colleges,' he said.

Mr. Limbavali defended the recent decision of the State Cabinet to shift the government engineering college from Hoovina Hadagali to Bellary. He said the government had to take such a decision as there was a poor turnout of students at Hoovina Hadagali. As against the sanctioned strength of 200 seats, only about 40 students had admitted themselves to this college last year. Similarly, only 43 students had enrolled themselves this year, he noted. The former Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti alleged that sanctioning of the new government degree colleges in some of the places, where the student strength was less, had not proved successful especially in the areas where already there were some good private aided colleges.

Sanctioning new government colleges meant that the student strength which was already lesser, dwindled further as the students would be distributed between both the colleges. He urged the government to reconsider the decision of sanctioning government colleges in such areas.

MLCs Ganesh Karnik, Narayanaswamy and G K Patil, Principal Secretary to Higher Education Department C S Suranjana, Collegiate Education Director K V Kodandaramaiah and Additional Director Kamalamma were present.

OneIndia News