Kathmandu, July 16:

Students of Tribhuvan University said today the provision governing the appointment of university teachers on contract basis had had a negative bearing on the quality of education because teachers were not selected on merit basis.

Bhim Shrish, president of Free Students’ Union, TU Campus, Kirtipur, asked the teachers to seek a way out. He threatened to launch agitation against the teachers if they worked to fulfil their petty interests.

Students said that as the TU Service Commission had not held examination for the selection of teachers, a good number of qualified candidates were deprived of employment opportunities.

Speaking at the programme, professors maintained that the provision of retirement of TU teachers after 63 years of age is just, while eligible candidates who wanted to work in the TU as teachers said the provision allowed ‘old and unproductive’ teachers to carry on.

Nepal Part-time Lectures’ Union said in a statement that the part-time lecturers were not governed by any act or regulation formulated by the TU. It said, “When autonomous institutions like the TU cannot decide by themselves and seek the government’s help, anything decided in such circumstances should be taken as a precedent and treated accordingly.”

Claiming that some 21,000 staffers of the TU would be made permanent, teachers asked why they could not be treated similarly. TU teachers said they were against phasing out of the proficiency certificate level, saying it benefited the ‘education mafia’. They said a number of TU teachers would lose their jobs if the level was scrapped.

The teachers said there was no clear policy to govern Higher Secondary Schools, adding that the schools did not have enough teachers.

Kul Prasad Koirala of Democratic Professors’ Union said it was a matter of shame for the university to have a 74-year-old dean and a 71-year-old vice-chancellor.

Speakers maintained that TU should be revamped to retain its glory.

Varsity in dilemma

KATHMANDU: A pact reached between agitating part-time teachers and the TU management two years ago had paved the way for the appointment of 900 part-time lecturers on contract basis. The pact had it that lecturers, who had worked for at least a year as part-time teachers, can be appointed on contract basis. Now that the number of eligible candidates has increased, the TU is in a dilemma on whether or not to appoint these teachers on contract basis. — HNS