CHENNAI: In a significant ruling that could affect lecturer aspirants across the country, the Madras high court on Monday held that a pass in the National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State-Level Eligibility Test ( SLET) will continue to be the mandatory qualification to apply for assistant professor posts in colleges.
The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Yusuf Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam, dismissing a batch of writ petitions and appeals filed by candidates with only MPhil qualification who have been seeking either exemption or sufficient time to clear NET/SLET, said: "The regulation and the decision of the central government (insisting on the NET/SLET) cannot, at any stretch of imagination, be held to be illegal, arbitrary or whimsical. The decision is rational and based on public interest and also national policy to upgrade the standard of education in the country."
The writ appeals were filed after a single judge dismissed the petitions against the central policy on April 22.
The petitioners had sought to restrain the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Teachers' Recruitment Board (TRB) from insisting on NET/SLET qualification for candidates who have passed MPhil prior to 1993 for appointment as assistant professors in Tamil Nadu Collegiate Educational Service. Noting that the UGC's regulations notified in July 2009 did not exempt candidates who had obtained their MPhil degrees prior to December 31, 1993, the petitioners also wanted the regulations to be quashed.
Opposing the petitions, additional solicitor general of South India M Ravindran and senior central government standing counsel P Chandrasekaran, representing the Centre, submitted that there were more than 12,000 NET-qualified candidates waiting for employment. If the requests of the petitioners are accepted, it would mean compromising on quality of education and teaching standard in colleges.
P Wilson, additional advocate-general of Tamil Nadu, representing the TRB, said that if the state did not follow the UGC regulations the Centre would not extend grants. Referring to the UGC's recent decision to exempt the candidates who obtained an MPhil degree on or before July 10, 2009 from clearing NET, he said such attempts have not been approved by the Centre. The HRD ministry too had earlier submitted that the UGC's decision is clearly incongruous and hence not acceptable.
Concurring with the submissions, the judges said the HRD ministry formed an experts' committee as it felt the need to upgrade the standard of teaching. After the Prof Mungerkar committee submitted its report, the government asked the UGC to frame guidelines. "But, the UGC, without considering the object and purpose of raising the standard of education, and without considering the global scenario, tried to give certain relaxation to the candidates for appearing in NET/SLET examination. In our opinion, the Central government has rightly refused to approve the decision of the UGC."
The UGC had last year notified its new regulations on minimum qualifications for teaching faculty as per which a pass in the NET was mandatory for appointment as assistant professors. This regulation had invited strong protests from a cross-section of the academic community and also led to multiple litigations in various high courts.
Read more: NET/ SLET pass a must for lecturers: HC - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/NET/-SLET-pass-a-must-for-lecturers-HC/articleshow/7056145.cms#ixzzo0uCfIGj6
Department of Lib. and Info. Science Alumni, Aligarh Muslim Univeristy Aligarh, India - 202002
The decision of the HRD Ministry to block the exemption resolution for PhDs made by the UGC is hubristic in nature and takes a narrow view of the matter. The decision is self-defeating and contradictory in itself on a number of counts.
ReplyDeletePrimarily, in the name of improving the standards of higher education, what is happening is that the limited space for excellence is being blocked. Although the new regulations prevent sub-standard candidates from entering academia, since they cannot crack the NET exam, it also prevents brilliant Indian researchers from foreign universities like Oxford and Cambridge entering the sphere of academics in India since they too don't have NET qualification. Effectively, these researchers are encouraged to stay abroad and not to return to India.
Moreover, the current crop of researchers from reputed Indian universities too (like Calcutta University) find themselves not eligible for teaching posts in colleges and universities despite having PhD degrees and an enviable corpus of research publications. It is preposterous to ask these researchers to sit for an exam based on the syllabus that they studied more than five years ago and the syllabus of which has changed much since then. Effectively, these researchers are also encouraged to leave Indian shores.
It is mentally taxing and almost impossible to motivate oneself to appear for a test of a lower level with one's juniors after completing PhD when one has been made to believe all along that one is good enough to get direct admission into a PhD programme and does not need to go through NET exam as it was not made compulsory by UGC at the time of the PhD candidate's registration.
Additionally, NET itself has an eligibility criterion. So when the authorities themselves acknowledge that there is no uniformity in standard of higher education how can a uniform criterion for NET eligibility be justified. A candidate from, say for example Calcutta University, (or even an external candidate who cannot afford regular education), who gets 50% at Masters level exam is better than most first class Masters students from less-reputable universities, but the former is not eligible for NET whereas the less-talented latter are. Earlier the former group had the scope to enter academics by getting a PhD degree from a reputable university and by producing important research publications in peer-reviewed national and international journals. By narrowing the criteria for recruitment that scope is being denied. Thereby assisting brain drain.
Moreover it is funny that those who are already in the system (some with only the Masters degree and neither NET qualification or PhD) have their jobs secured and those who dedicated full time to research during the same period find themselves jobless. And then those who will do their PhDs post 2009 (under new PhD regulations) will find recruitment. And the new PhD regulations are not tougher than the earlier PhD regulations of many universities. For example, Calcutta University followed rigorous PhD rules and the new UGC regulations for PhD dilutes it. Earlier the coursework part of PhD used to done by the candidate independently but now they will be spoon fed in a six month crash course. There will be less of independent thinking and research and more of teaching. So if the candidates under new regulation will be eligible for recruitment then why deny recruitment to researchers who registered before 2009 and some of whom have got their PhDs now.
Instead of separating the grain from the chaff the authorities are excusing themselves from the very activity of sieving. It is a classic example of throwing away the baby with the bathwater and hoping for future procreation instead. But the authorities perhaps don't realize that they are killing the dreams of the researchers as well of the nation.
Dr. S. Arul Selvan
ReplyDeleteSo many Net qualified candidates with Ph.D are not able to enter in to universities/colleges because for example Tamil Nadu TRB they fixed 2 marks for those worked in any college with or with out salary,with or with out sanctioned post. With their decision only those worked in college with out proper qualification (only M.Phil) got posting in government colleges. They have not given not even a mark to NET exam. Then how can tbe higher education will be standard. They can give first preference to those candidates possessing both Ph.D and NET. Then there will be a good quality in higher education.