Most govt. arts colleges administered by In-Charge principals as seniority conundrum for regular posting persists 

Most of the government arts and science colleges in Coimbatore region are being administered by In-Charge principals, as the Higher Education Department is awaiting a directive of High Court on the panel of candidates for promotion.

At a crucial juncture of the academic year, decision-making has taken a backseat, according to senior faculty in the colleges.

At present, there are regular appointees as principals only in the government arts and science colleges in Coimbatore, Thondamuthur, Puliyakulam, Udumalpet, Ooty and the Chikkanna Govt. Arts College in Tiruppur.

The colleges in the newly-started one at Coonoor, and the other colleges at Gudalur, Anthiyur, Thalavadi, Sathyamangalam, Valparai, Mettupalayam, Avinashi, Kangeyam, Dharapuram, and Chikkiah Naicker Government Arts and Science College in Erode, are administered by In-Charge principals.

This situation is stated to be the same in all other regions across Tamil Nadu.

The contention of the aspirants of Science and Mathematics background to the Principal post is that they are at a disadvantage when seniority gets determined by the marks scored in the process of their recruitment based on written examination.

Their reasoning is that since the aspirants from Arts and Humanities background could secure higher marks in the selection process, there was no level-playing ground. The seniority, they have argued in the Court, ought to be based on the percentile and subject weightage.

There are more than 100 aspirants in the seniority list for being posted as principals in the Government Arts and Science Colleges.

The current practice is that the senior-most faculty in the college is asked to perform the task of In-Charge Principal. In some cases, principals of nearest government arts and science colleges are given additional charge.

Teachers’ organisations are learnt to have suggested to the Higher Education Department that the aspirants in the promotion panel could as well be posted as In-Charge principals, until the regular posting is decided based on the High Court directive on the case of seniority.