ES Reporter

ITANAGAR, May 25:The Arunachal Pradesh College Teachers Association (APCTA) has issued a caveat to the Vice Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University to accept their charter of demands, failing which they will be left with no option but to boycott the evaluation of RGU answer scripts this year.

Alleging constant failure of RGU authority to address their genuine grievances, the association has reiterated for immediate restoration of the deducted 14 days of summer vacation of college teachers from the Session 2016-17 and has decided to remain absent from university duties on May 27 and June 3 next as a mark of protest.

 

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, APCTA, President, PG Tago said that the association had approached the Deputy Registrar and Vice Chancellor and held many meetings regarding the issue, but till date no results have come forth except for assurances.

 

Dwelling on the issues relating to summer vacation, Tago informed that all the RGU affiliated colleges since 2013 have been availing summer vacation of 47 days, however in the last Academic Council meeting, the duration of summer vacation was cut short by 14 days without consulting the teaching fraternity and state government.

“After implementation of Semester mode, the government has also indirectly extended the work load of teachers by 1 hour per day. Earlier the working hours of college used to start at 9:30 am, but with the new arrangement (semester system), the colleges start at 8:30 am and continue up to 4:30 PM,” lamented Tago adding that totalling the numbers of hours in a year has ultimately shortened vacation days.

He also called upon the VC not to conduct exams on Saturdays and Sundays as per directives of University Grant Commission (UGC) so that holidays are not spoiled.

Tago further claimed that the existing remuneration presently entitled to college teacher for exam related works like Tabulation, invigilation duty and evaluation etc is very low in comparison to other states, where most of the college teachers are getting high amount for their examination service.

He suggested the authority for slight increment in charges of few exams related works like Invigilation duties from Rs 50-150, Deputy Centre Superintendent may be increased from Rs 2000 to Rs 4000 etc and evaluation of answer script (under graduate) from Rs 12 to at least 25 per script etc.

On the issue of exemption from entrance test for pursuing PhD program for in-service candidates and college teachers, APCTA, General Secretary, Eli Doye alleged that in the recently published RGUPET 2015 issued by RGU, there is no scope for reservation of PhD seat for in-service college faculties and requested the authority to reserve 50% seats very year mandatory for admission to PhD programs, for those teachers who are rendering valuable service in remote areas.

Further referring to the UGC provisions in clause 6.1 & 6.2 under the “Allocation of research supervisor”, Doye said under UGC guidelines and norms there is a provision that any regular professor of the university can become and act as Full/independent supervisor-ship for PhD programs.

He also reminded that of assurance given by the then VC Dr. D. Pandey in the year 2009, where he issued a notification citing that as per the new academic ordinance, the RGU college teachers are eligible to act as PhD supervisors. 

However, Doye stated that despite reported reminder of the notification and outcry of APCTA, no college teachers has been authorized to act as supervisor so far.

The association further alleged that the non-cooperative attitude of the officials of RGU has caused widespread resentment and exasperation among the teachers of the university and constituent colleges.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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