PU lecturers boycott valuation, again

The pre-university lecturers on Thursday decided to go on an indefinite strike, boycotting the valuation of second year PU answer papers.

The decision comes after the lecturers failed to receive assurance on their demands from the government by Thursday evening, the deadline set by them.

However, during an interaction with the media on Thursday evening, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri said the PU lecturers’ association would continue with the evaluation of the papers and their contentions would be addressed by Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on April 19.

Kageri said he had convinced the protesting lecturers that Gowda would look into the discrepancies in their salaries. Lecturers had set Thursday as the deadline for the government to hold the meeting and threatened to boycott evaluation from Friday, if their demands were not met.

“I am sure that the lecturers will cooperate with us – they are also concerned about the students,” the minister said, adding that the government would also take into consideration the demands placed by the SSLC teachers.

Contrary to what Kageri had hoped, the lecturers’ association took a decision to boycott valuation from Friday. The lecturers, who opined that they had waited long enough for the State government to meet their demands, took a decision to go ahead with their protest.

“There are plenty of instances of such assurances. We have been protesting for the past one year. Every single time the government has gone back on its word. We do not trust their assurances until a decision has been taken in our favour,” said Shakeel Ahmed, general secretary, Karnataka PU College Lecturers’ Association.

Cannot wait longer

“Nothing has been spoken about this in the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. We cannot wait till the next Pay Commission. Enough is enough,” said K T Srikante Gowda, president of Karnataka PU College Principals’ Association, reacting sharply to the government’s oscillating stand with respect to their demands.

Amidst all this, students are having to bear the brunt of the tiff between the lecturers and the State government. The batch of second PU students who appeared for the exam recently, indeed have suffered because of the loopholes in the administrative system.

First it was the paper leak, then it was the entrance exam close on the heels of the board exams and now they are not sure when their results will be out.

It is ironical that just three days ago on April 9, Kageri had announced that the department intends to declare PU results before the Common Entrance Test (CET) on May 3 and 4.

Worried students are not able to comprehend why politics is coming in the way of their future. “We do not know if it is worth working hard and studying anymore. We are very angry and disappointed at the state of affairs.

It hinders our CET preparation because we are now unsure of our future. We are also angry with the PU Board because we are made to suffer for no fault of ours,” says Vignesh B C, a student. Now that the teachers will be angry, even if they do evaluate the papers, their dissatisfaction will affect the evaluation, which will lead to students scoring less in the exam, says the anxious student.

B A Ramesh Chengappa, the student’s father is annoyed. “The teachers are not satisfied with any amount of money that they get. Just for the sake of satisfying their greed, how can they put the future of our children in jeopardy?” he asks. They should make their demands at another time, instead of dragging children into something that does not concern them, he opines,adding that this can cause them to miss their competitive exams.

From one whole month, students have been put under tremendous pressure for no fault of theirs. Is anyone listening to the students’ woes?