The Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh (ABRSM) on Thursday suggested to the State Government to develop infrastructure facilities and various amenities for teachers in colleges so that their seven-hour stay would be more productive and beneficial to students.
In a letter to Higher Education Secretary Saswat Mishra, ABRSM national executive council member Dr Narayan Mohanty made a number of suggestions to the Government in response to the latter’s directive to teachers of Government and aided non-Government colleges to do 7-hour duty every day.
“College teachers have been asked to perform duty for at least 7 hours on every working day. This prolonged stay, though not impossible, will hardly promote the best interests of either the students or the teachers given the infrastructure or rather the absence of it to make their stay meaningful. It is a fact that the teachers stay in colleges for 7 hours or more when occasion arises in emergent situations. Hence there was no need of issuing such a circular,” read the letter.
Pointing out that a teacher's duty is not about staying long hours rather it is about meeting the academic/ intellectual needs of his wards and helping their growth, he said wow the number of general classes sans tutorial classes would help run the college when large vacancies are existing in almost all teaching departments across the State.
Giving his suggestion on the biometric attendance recording system, Mohanty noted that in a college dereliction of duty stands out in stark relief as the students, being the direct beneficiaries, bring it to the administration’s notice.
“It is a fact that a college teacher has traditionally enjoyed flexi-timings owing to the nature and burden of his job. He should not be dissipating his focus by doing nothing or on the contrary by doing all kind of sundry work prior to his class. Our colleges do not have the right kind of atmosphere conducive for academic pursuit. Reading rooms are either not there or woefully inadequate for the students and scholars. Insisting that the teacher stays in college for seven hours and ensuring it through biometric attendance will strike at the roofs of his self-worth, individualism and honor,” he noted.
Stating that the State's educational institutions are beggared by comparison with private ones where modern amenities are available to all the students and members of faculty, Mohanty suggested to the Government to start operating one model college in every district equipped with a spacious state-of-the-art reading room, a subsidised canteen, a gymnasium, a swimming pool with a yoga centre, an audio-visual unit and an indoor sports facility. These are add-ones which even the NAAC gives credence to, he mentioned.
