The Karnataka government has imposed a restriction that if there are less than 40 students enrolled per subject in a pre-university (PU) college, those lecturers are not eligible for transfer.
After objections raised by the lecturers during the transfer online counselling process, the Department of PU Education (DPUE) had postponed the government PU colleges principals and lecturers transfer counselling on August 11. But the department sent a message on Sunday to principals of PU colleges stating that the transfer process will be continued as per the schedule from August 14 onwards. On Monday, transfer of Kannada lecturers counselling was conducted.
The department started the request transfer process of government principals and lecturers of PU colleges. Around 82 principals and 2,397 lecturers applied for transfer this year. The department had announced the schedule of lecturers general transfer online counselling from August 11 to 24.
“There are around 1,232 government PU colleges running in the State. But, during the time of online counselling, the department hid the available vacancies of lecturer post in 297 PU Colleges and 1,047 subject wise posts,” a transfer aspirant alleged.
“After various enquiries, officials revealed that the department has imposed a restriction that if there are less than 40 students enrolled per each subject in the PU course, those lecturers are not eligible for transfer. The department has not sent an order about this restriction, nor has it informed us,” said a lecturer.
Speaking to The Hindu, a DPUE official who wished to remain anonymous said, “There is a scarcity of lecturers in most of the government PU colleges in the cities. These colleges have highest number of student enrolment this year. But, in the rural colleges, around 300 colleges have less than 40 students in each subject. The department has decided to drive lecturers to crowded colleges and imposed a restriction. We will provide guest lecturers for colleges where students enrolled is less 40 students per subject.”
Ningegowda. A.H., president of the Karnataka State Pre-University Lecturers’ Association, termed the restriction on transfer on the basis of student enrolment per subject as illegal. “There is no such condition put in the transfer notification. We request the government to show the vacancies of lecturer posts irrespective of student enrolment subject wise while counselling.”
However, Sindhu Rupesh, Director of DPUE, said the decision was taken by the government, not the department. “The government has made it mandatory for an average of 40 students per subject. Some colleges have around 200 to 300 students enrolment per subject with scarcity of lecturers. At the same time, we could see only 20 to 30 students in each subject and enough number of teaching faculties. Therefore, the government has decided to share the workload equally for all the lecturers and decided to restrict the transfer for lecturers where the students enrolment is less than 40 per subject.”
