Hyderabad: Faculty from 85 colleges seek Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan's intervention

Hyderabad: Armed with pieces of evidence of working full-time through online mode, employees of 85 engineering colleges knocked the doors of Raj Bhavan seeking the intervention of the Chancellor and Governor, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, regarding their salaries being either partially- paid or not paid by the colleges.

According to a representation sent to the Chancellor of the universities on Friday, Telangana Technical Institutions Employees Association (TTIEA) said that the faculty in 85 private engineering colleges have been asking them to carry out various activities apart from taking online teaching classes for the students. They include conducting seminars online, giving assignments, correction and evaluation, creating and monitoring students' WhatsApp groups. Also, preparing and posting online quizzes, short question – answers, MCQs, arranging free online seminars by experts, monitoring attendance and posting the same to the student's parents, besides sending it to the department heads, principals and the college management. That apart, the faculty members have to record all the lessons and produce the video as a proof of working for the day. In turn, the college is claiming Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the video lessons.

The teachers also have to submit weekly- teaching and syllabus coverage schedule and daily system-generated attendance sheet to the HoDs and principals.

This way, the faculty members are forced to work day and night working more than they normally do in a face-to-face classroom teaching. However, most of the faculty members have not been paid salaries for the days they have discharged their duties.

Further, in the representation, the association highlighted how the threat of sudden removal from service is looming large.

Against this backdrop the association sought the intervention of the Chancellor to ensure that the staff is paid full salary, besides taking action against the erring colleges and principals for violating the regulations notified by the State government, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the universities to which the colleges were affiliated.