Thousands of guest lecturers at government colleges, who have been protesting for permanent recruitment, have decided to get back to their jobs. 

The announcement prompted the Department of Higher Education to withdraw its February 12 order on fresh recruitment of guest lecturers. 

P Rajashekhara Murthy, honorary president, Karnataka Guest Lecturers’ Association, said they would resume teaching “in the interests of students”, though their demands have not been fulfilled. 

Protest marchOn Monday, more than a thousand guest lecturers from across Karnataka took out a march from the Bengaluru City railway station to the Freedom Park against the department’s move to conduct fresh recruitment. 

“We will resume classes for the sake of students, but will launch a statewide bandh (of colleges) on February 26. We want permanent jobs. CET recruitments should to be stopped at once,” Murthy said. 

Some officials of the Department of Collegiate Education, along with politicians such as MLC Basavaraj Horatti, assured the lecturers of taking up the matter with the government. 

An official, who did not want to be named, claimed the protesters had not applied for the fresh recruitment. 

“Many of these protesting lecturers knew about their tenure and workload from the beginning. Close to 70-80 per cent of them applied for the new recruitment.

Those protesting are the ones who didn’t apply. We will see how we can sort this out,” the official said.