NET passouts fast against hiring ban
Protesters claim 11,500 teachers’ posts lying vacant across state; earlier pleas have fallen on deaf ears
While on one hand it is compulsory for college teachers to pass the National Eligibility Test (NET) and State Eligibility Test (SET) to have permanent jobs in aided colleges; on the other, candidates who have already passed the NET/SET examination have gone on hunger strike against the state government’s stay order on teacher recruitment.
Members of the PhD NET SET Teachers’ Union are demanding that vacant positions in colleges across the state should be filled from the pool of qualified teachers. Candidates, who have cleared the exams and are on strike at Central Building, Pune, have complained that the stay on recruitment of faculties came into effect in August 2017 and since then the teachers have been agitating against the move but to no avail.
Dr Sandeep Pathrikar, who is a PhD NET SET in Geography, said, “There are almost 11,500 seats lying vacant in various colleges across Maharashtra. We have written to the chief minister at least four times asking that the recruitment process be started. We have also approached almost 80 MLAs in the state. But all our pleas have fallen on deaf ears, forcing us to go on hunger strike.”
The union has also requested Dhanraj Mane, director, higher education, to start the recruitment of teachers as soon as possible. Prior to this on May 2, the teachers had also protested at Savitribai Phule Pune University and had asked the university to take back their degrees as the degrees are not helping them to get jobs.
Suresh Devdhe, who has completed NET/SET and M Phil in commerce, said, “All the teachers who are protesting have been working on hourly basis. The salary of teachers who have completed NET/SET should be much more than what we are earning now. When we are eligible for teaching jobs in aided colleges and universities, why are we being forced into contractual positions? Private institutes have their own limitation and are not paying the teachers on a regular basis. We are left with no option but to depend on the state government to start the recruitment process.”
He added, “We keep on working at our colleges in the hope of getting absorbed into permanent positions there itself. The salaries we receive are peanuts. The college management also bargains with us on remuneration.
To understand the problem that the teachers are facing, MP Supriya Sule visited the hunger strike site and talked to the protesters. Sule assured them that she would take up their demands with the chief minister.
On being quizzed, Mane said, “We have been following up the process of recruitment with the state government. The recruitment will begin as soon as the ban on recruitment is lifted. We are trying our level best and are awaiting the final approval from the government.”