Editorial»
TU needs part-timers
DEC 19 - The part-time teachers of Tribhuvan
University (TU) continued their strike. The university has come out with a statement saying that it is not in a condition to fulfil any of their demands. Rector of TU, Prof Dr Mahendra Singh, came out with a statement last Saturday saying that the university is going through a historical phase. TU-issued a press release stating: TU is “grappling with serious financial and academic crises.” Whether this “historical crisis” also includes the furore created by the ongoing part-timers’ strike is not clear.
TU has a tendency to regard the part-timers as the “others.” They are not counted as mainstream teachers by TU’s bureaucracy. I think this should be regarded as a more serious crisis than the so-called “historical crisis.” Being a part-time university teacher at TU, I would like to share my personal experiences here.
The college where I teach has a large number of part-time teachers. In fact, the entire post-graduate programme is run with their support. They are intelligent, regular in their classes and, above all, appreciated by the students. These scholars of the younger generation are hardworking and possess the needed academic knowledge. I do not mean to say that the full-timers or the permanent teachers lack this capability. In fact, I have learned many good things from them. They too are loved and respected by the students along with their part time colleagues. From my personal experience, I have found that the job of teaching students at the post graduate level is highly demanding. One has to set aside many hours for library visits, to browse web sites, and consult senior professors of the concerned subjects. This is all part of the preparation for the class-room lecture that follows. It is not that the college where I teach is the only institute that employs part-time teachers. One can see that most of the colleges under TU which run post graduate courses hire part-time teachers, and most of them come from the younger generation.
TU runs its entire post-graduate courses with the support of the part-time teachers. It should be proud of them. But the authorities concerned appear indifferent to this fact. The university has more bureaucrats than academicians. The part-timers are increasing every year according to the need of the university. They need to be counted, don’t they?
TU part-timers, in fact, are not counted. They are not paid much. I get hardly a hundred bucks per lecture. In the last four years that I have been working in TU, I was never paid on time. Sometimes, I have to wait for four months to get the wage. One needs to have great patience to become a part-timer. But, I love teaching here. I have a dream of becoming a professor here, and I think I am preparing for it. The authorities concerned should be aware of the fact that TU now needs scholars more than before. This university has a long way to go. For this, it needs to have new and dynamic manpower.
Moreover, the part-timers are given a minimum chance to come out of the valley of indifference. One has to wait for years. Otherwise, they do not get any of the basic facilities that a scholar needs.
As far as I know, TU announces vacancy for permanent teachers once in every four years. I sat for the exam of the same type, last year in February. There were more than three hundred of us competing for only a dozen vacancies. The result has not been announced yet. I think the people running this glorious institution are the ones mocking it too. One can ask a question - what takes this institution, that boasts of having the largest number of staff, a whole year to publish results?
TU enrols the largest numbers of students every year. This means it needs teachers too. The part-timers who are competent to teach should be given a chance to participate in the progress of this university. The university needs to solve out this historical crisis without ignoring the genuine demands of part-timers, without whose help it cannot run its regular classes and hold examinations according to their academic calendar. Let us all accept this fact honestly.Posted on: 2003-12-19 03:51
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