A year after the demand that colleges must appoint faculty to teach allied subjects, nothing has come of it, say members of the Tamil Nadu Association of Intellectuals and Faculty.
The association had appealed for separate faculty to teach allied subjects as often the teachers who teach the core subjects are not suited to teach electives. The Higher Education department had issued orders and circulars to its officials, but action was not taken, says the association.
Association general secretary M. Govindarajan gave three examples of the allied subjects: Mathematics and Statistics are allied subjects of the core subject Economics; introduction to Sociology is an elective for Sociology; and Computer Applications in Economics.
According to a faculty member, in most colleges, core subject teachers teach allied subjects and the result is that students do not gain adequate knowledge of the allied subjects.
With the Higher Education department gearing up for the start of the next academic year on July 3, the association has renewed its demand. It had written to the Directorate of Collegiate Education urging it to ensure that it should take forward its circular that colleges should appoint teachers for allied courses. The Higher Education department had issued an order on May 27 last year and the University of Madras had responded to the association’s letter.
The Directorate of Collegiate Education, on May 23, 2022, issued a circular to all regional joint directors to appoint separate faculty to teach allied subjects and not use teachers of main subjects.
In response, on June 7, the registrar in-charge of the University of Madras assured the association that the “inspection commission would be requested to emphasise the appointment of teachers to conduct the allied subjects during the inspection of the college to grant affiliation to the courses.”
