CHENNAI: Thousands of MPhil degree holders, who are serving as faculty members in self-financing arts and science colleges, are finding themselves in an unenviable position following the Madras high court ruling making a pass in the National Eligibility Test (NET) a mandatory qualification for appointment as assistant professors and above.

In Tamil Nadu, the immediate impact of the verdict is that scores of aspirants will not qualify for the 1,024 posts of assistant professors (lecturers) in government/aided colleges for which the Teachers Recruitment Board is set to conduct interview following the green signal from the court.

Several serving teachers in the self-financing institutions, who hold MPhil degrees sans NET qualification and are drawing paltry sums as salary, will not be able to apply for these positions which would have otherwise entailed them to UGC-fixed pay scales with job security.

"Estimates show that there are just 12,500 NET certificate holders in various subjects in the country whereas the vacancies in the universities and colleges are manifold. Teachers serving in self-financing colleges with an MPhil degree (based on an earlier exemption granted for such candidates by the UGC from appearing in the NET) will now be stuck in their institutions with no scope for career mobility," said assistant professor C R Ravi, who supports the cause of the MPhil degree holders. "There is no option but to move the Supreme Court challenging the high court verdict. This will be done immediately," he added.

While policy makers have argued that serving teachers must take efforts to clear the NET and qualify themselves for the job as part of enhancing standard in higher education, young teachers in self-financing colleges are contending that this is easier said than done.

"A sense of insecurity has gripped the non-NET qualified teachers in private colleges. Teaching is no longer 8am to 2pm job. In self-financing colleges, teachers are made to work beyond duty hours. Even on weekends, we are being asked to work. There is no time to prepare for the NET, which is a very difficult examination, since a lot of administrative work is also thrust on us in addition to the academic work," said an assistant professor of a leading self-financing arts and science college in Chennai.

"The questions in NET are not confined to our specialisation. For instance in the journalism paper, questions are asked about printing technology, flexography and gravure process, all of which are highly technical and irrelevant to the main area of communication," she explained.

Also, in Tamil Nadu the State Level Eligibility Test (an alternative to NET) has not been conducted for long. "We will be at the mercy of private colleges who will continue to pay us less citing the lack of NET qualification," one of the petitioners said.



Read more: HC order leaves MPhil holders in NET of woes - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/HC-order-leaves-MPh...