Low morale of temporary teachers affects vibrancy in online classes

Though the start of the academic year has not been delayed much for intermediate and final year students, vibrancy in online classes has apparently waned due to sagging morale of a large number of teachers appointed for consolidated salaries.

As the proportion of permanent teachers is low, the managements run the show with the temporary teachers for whom the salaries were slashed after the lockdown took effect last year.

Since a section of them had left their jobs, managements of very many colleges have appointed new teachers with only M.Phil qualification – the UGC specifies a minimum qualification of Ph.D. or pass in NET/SLET – for monthly salaries as low as ₹ 5,000, which, teachers receiving payments on time-scale basis say “is hardly sufficient even for hand-to-mouth existence.”

The loss of self-esteem coupled with financial stress has caused the decline in morale of teachers appointed for consolidated pay, according to a Head of a Department in an aided college in Tiruchi. “Heads of Departments are the ones who find themselves in an unenviable situation of assigning work for these teachers knowing fully well that they are not in a state of mind to do justice to their tasks,” he said, adding that the lack of interest on the part of students attending the online classes makes things worse. So far, after the start of classes on August 9, there have been visible indications of lethargy and lack of seriousness on the part of students, perhaps, due to their awareness about the circular from the Directorate of Collegiate Education that their daily attendance need not be insisted upon.

“Reduction of salary for teachers in self-supporting programmes by the college managements is unreasonable since the colleges continue to collect the prescribed fee from almost all the students even during the pandemic period,” S. Sahaya Sathish, State general secretary, Aided College Teachers’ Association, said.

Some of the teachers who leave their jobs due to the meagre pay have not been able to find alternative livelihood. Their misery has only aggravated, he said.

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