Maternity leave: non-appointment of guest faculty in govt. colleges a cause for concern
Lack of clarity in a government order on the appointment of guest teachers, in place of permanent staff who go on leave, is reportedly affecting the functioning of at least some departments in government colleges in Kerala.
According to sources, the order says that if permanent teachers go on Leave Without Allowances for more than three months, guest teachers can be appointed in their place. However, no temporary appointments are permitted to replace those who go on earned leave or commuted leave.
Abida Farooqui, Senate member, University of Calicut, and also assistant professor, Department of English, Government College, Kondotty, Malappuram, has written to Minister for Higher Education R. Bindu and the Director of Collegiate Education, highlighting the issue. In the letter, Ms. Farooqui said the non-appointment of guest teachers in posts of those on maternity leave had been “causing tremendous difficulties to the staff and students alike”.
She said that paid maternity leave was a government-sponsored incentive for female staff to support them for child bearing and child rearing. The appointment of guest teachers had been a gender-friendly practice since the leave of absence was for a prolonged duration of six months. “The non-appointment also violated the spirit of gender equity that underlies such benefits,” said Ms. Farooqui, a functionary of the Confederation of Kerala College Teachers.
Functionaries of other organisations representing government college teachers told The Hindu on July 27 that officials in the Collegiate Education Directorate were objecting to the appointment, claiming that it would lead to two persons simultaneously getting salaries from the government. The issue was being taken up with the Minister’s office, they added. Meanwhile, another teacher in a government college in a southern Kerala district said that despite the lack of clarity, interviews to appoint guest teachers had been planned in that institution.
Ms. Farooqui said the official objection also seemed to stem from the fact that the clause did not specify maternity leave as such. She, however, said that when female staff in the General Education department went on maternity leave, guest teachers were appointed in their place. Not doing so in government colleges amounted to discrimination, she added.
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