Last Updated on March 8, 2021 at 3:08 pm
The Higher Education Department has sent a proposal for increasing the salary of contractual teaching faculty which are employed as academic arrangement and teaching assistants in the Government Degree Colleges (GDCs) throughout J&K UT.
Sources said that Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor has received a detailed proposal from the Higher Education Department to increase monthly remuneration of contractual teachers of degree colleges. In accordance with the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, the Higher Education Department has propositioned to increase the monthly remuneration of academic arrangement to Rs. 50,000, while the teaching assistants will get Rs. 38,000 per month.
The teaching faculty which work as academic arrangement get Rs. 28,000 per month, while teaching assistants receive only Rs. 22,000 per month. This amount is very low considering UGC guidelines and the decision of the Supreme Court, which asks to pay equal pay for equal work. It means to pay a basic salary to the teaching faculty which is around Rs. 57,000 per month.
Sources informed that the proposal also suggested to increase the tenure of academic arrangement for two years. One year extension will be provided on the basis of the performance of the candidate.
The Advisor to Lieutenant Governor has raised a question and asked the department to elaborate on the financial resources which are available for the colleges to pay the teaching faculty members employed on the basis of academic arrangement. These faculty members are paid according to their contracts on a monthly basis from the Local Pool Fund of the respective colleges.
A contractual lecturer said that they appreciate the Higher Education Department’s decision as they receive only a paltry sum. If they start getting paid Rs. 50,000 then it will be a decent amount for contractual academic staff who have devoted so many years in teaching but only got peanuts in return. He also said that the whole contractual fraternity would be highly grateful to the department and the Lieutenant Governor if the salary hike proposal is approved.
According to the sources, the proposal was sent with permission to employ teaching faculty on academic arrangements basis in the colleges for this current session. Permission has been received to engage the teaching faculty, however on other issues, the department has been asked to send details. Sources said that the department is now working to collect details of finances from the colleges and once the process is over, these details will be forwarded to the Advisor.
