PNC part-time teachers on war path

Pokhara, January 26

Part-time teachers working at Prithivi Narayan Campus for the past 14 years warned today of resigning en masse.

Organising a press meet, Part-time Professors’ Union, Prithivi Narayan Campus Chair Sunil Gautam accused the campus management of paying them minimum salary and benefit for the past 14 years. Gautam warned theagitation would not be withdrawn unless they were paid on a par with their other colleagues.

Out of 549 faculty members, as many as 218 have been working as part-timers.

Union Secretary Khimananda Poudel said sometimes they were not paid even for the classes they took. The faculty members have been agitating for the past oneand-a-half months. They have drawn the attention of the campus management, held discussion with stakeholders and padlocked offices of the campus chief and assistant campus chief. “We are planning to halt classes indefinitely from tomorrow and put in paper en masse,” said Gautam.

Campus Chief Professor Dr Chandra Bahadur Thapa said number of classes had gone up as the three-year bachelor’s level programme was extended to four years and master’s classes were being conducted in the semester system, but higher authority had ignored the problem. All Nepal national Free Students’ Union central committee member and Campus Committee Chairman Rajan Sharma said part-time teachers’ problem was complex. “Campus administration has to address the issues raised by the agitating teachers,” he said.