The state government, which was initially apprehensive of its plans to recruit over 10,000 guest lecturers this fiscal, has now been flooded with 60,000-plus applications.
This comes as a surprise, especially at a time when the government is fearing backlash, with thousands of existing guest lecturers already on an indefinite stir.
According to sources in the Higher Education Department, applications were invited for 10,636 posts and the online counselling for the appointment was scheduled to be held from Thursday for a period of four days.
Pradeep P, Commissioner of the department, said that 7,225 guest lecturers for 47 subjects will be appointed with full workload (15 hours/week) and another 3,411 with partial workload.
The highest number of applications was received for commerce, followed by Kannada, computer science and English.
Hike in honorarium
Senior officials in the department said that the government's decision to increase honorarium has resulted in the influx of applications.
A day before the Sankranti festival, the government had increased the honorarium in three slabs — Rs 32,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 26,000 — based on the experience and qualifications set by the UGC.
But the Karnataka Guest Faculties Association had decided to continue with the protests, demanding a cap on workload. The association felt that the increase in workload would have a cascading effect, resulting in job losses for at least 70,000 guest lecturers who are currently working in various colleges.
"Candidates were allowed to choose 10 colleges and now, during the counselling, they can pick the college based on seniority," said Pradeep. They need to report for work in the instructed colleges within two days.
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