Education Mismanaged...

TEACHERS TO PROTEST

Andheri colleges trust fires faculty, students worried

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: The spotlight is again on the two colleges that stirred up a controversy at the start of this academic year. Laxmi Education Society, which runs two suburban junior colleges—MVLU College and Chinai College—has terminated the services of all its faculty members. This has left the current Std XI batches high and dry, as there will be no faculty member to teach them when students enter Std XII.
So far, the management has terminated the services of 42 teachers, who were a part of the arts, commerce and science streams. The college had
served a notice to 27 faculty members in June 2007. And more recently, on January 31, 2008, the remaining 15 teachers were given the pink slip, said A J Singh, president of the Mumbai Junior College Teachers’ Union. These teachers are currently serving their three-month notice period. The ousted faculty have threatened to stage a protest on February 18 in front of the college.
However, according to state rules, services of these professors cannot be terminated unless they are accommodated in other institutions. “So several teachers whose services were terminated in June continued to keep coming to college, but the management served them trespassing notices,’’ added Singh. Now, with the remaining 15 teachers also gone, students and teachers are in a quandary.
The junior colleges have a combined intake of 1,560 students. But merely 40 students in science and 67 in commerce were admitted in 2007. This, after the Bombay high court ruled that the management cannot shut down the colleges.
It was in June when the trust had informed the students of its decision to shut down the institutions by October. Following this, petitions had been filed by teachers and a social worker, opposing it. The government, too, has challenged the decision and alleged that the management was planning to open a mall. Now, the teachers are demanding that the state appoint an administrator for this academic year’s admission in both colleges. The Gujarati linguistic minority colleges attract a large number of students from as far away as Vasai and Virar.
Despite repeated attempts, TOI was unable to contact Hemant Vissanji, secretary of Laxmi Education Trust.
Students are now worried. “We took admission here because the state government had ordered against the shutting down of the college. But now if there are no teachers next year, who will teach us?’’ asked a science student. The trust has been trying to shut down the colleges since some years. It has been reducing the number of total seats each year, and the state alleges the trust is keen on setting up a mall on this land in Andheri (east).
hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com