Bring teachers under ESMA
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 21 — "The government must invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to prohibit teachers from continuing their indefinite strike any further," feel a majority of students and their parents interviewed by The Tribune today.

"We have been paying through our nose to get our wards educated in colleges and universities. The teachers get so much and are required to deliver one or two lectures a day. But still they do not want to discharge their duties of teaching students", remarked an agitated parent. "In no college or university, the norms laid down by the UGC for minimum lectures for an academic session are being followed. When they do not adhere to the UGC norms, how come they want UGC recommendations for their salaries to be implemented?".

"Even if they have to agitate in support of their demands, they can very well do it after their classes which do not extend beyond a few hours on five days a week and a maximum of 120 days a year", remarked another parent.

A group of students of the Department of Law in a memorandum submitted to the Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University described the strike as "unjustified" and expressed their concern over loss of studies.

Only a couple of students and parents interviewed suggested a negotiated solution to the indefinite strike.

Almost all wanted the strike to end immediately.

The drastic measure of invoking ESMA is justified, students feel, as teachers are a role model. When they resort to prolonged strikes, they in a way justify the same means for students.

The new comers in the absence of teachers, feel like orphans in their new academic environs, says Neetu, a student of the Sector 11 Government College for Girls. "We had hardly joined when the strike started. There is no one to guide us. We feel distressed and lost".

Swapandeep Sallan, a student of DAV College, says strikes have become the order of the day. "Why cannot the teachers adopt other means of protest or use their spare time after college hours to realise their demands", he quipped.

Maninderpal Singh, a student of SGGS College, Sector 26, told TNS that issues should be resolved, and the students should be refunded money for the period for which they were not taught. This was because assurances by the teachers that they would take extra classes had never materialised and the students had to go in for tuitions.

In most cases the teachers ,especially those teaching science subjects, would rush through the practicals or make do without them altogether . Going by past experience they would this year too have to borrow notes from their seniors and hope for the best, he added.

Harinderpal Singh, a student of MA, was more candid and wondered why the courts were silent on the matter while the entire student fraternity was being held to ransom. The national leadership was also silent on the matter while the students who had paid the enhanced fees were whiling away their time for no fault of theirs.

A weapon which had been used with great effect by the Father of the Nation was being used with greater effect by the teachers today, unmindful of the fact that the British had left 50 years ago and whatever the system we had adopted was out of our own free will.

Various student leaders in the Panjab University, like D P S Randhawa of the SOPU and Jaswinder Singh of the PSO, said students were coming to them with queries about the possibility of an early end to the strike, but even they were clueless. "However, we wish that the government should strike a deal with the teachers so that the students do not suffer".

They, however, said that they had full faith in the assurance by teachers that they would take extra classes.

A majority of parents are of the view that the teachers should realise their duty as nation-builders, and should not adopt a destructive path of boycotting classes,resulting in irreparable loss, to the students. While stressing that an amicable solution should be found by the teachers as well as the government to put an end to the strike, the parents maintained that instead of going in for a strike, the teachers must find some other mode of protest, so that the future of the students was not spoiled.

The parents of the college-going students were also apprehensive that they will have to bear an extra financial loss as to enable their wards to make up the loss owing to the strike, that is to opt for tuitions.

Mrs Sunita Nagpal, a residents of Sector 35, whose daughter is a student at the MCM College said uncertainty was prevailing among students as they think that they would not be able to make up the losses even if they took tuitions by paying hefty amounts. Mrs Nagpal suggested that the teachers should not go on a strike at all.

While suggesting some harsh measures on the part of the authorities, Mr Surinder Gupta, father of a BA part III student, said that the government should invoke ESMA to deal with "uncalled for " strikes by employees working in the field of education as well as health, as both of these sectors were hampering the process of nation-building directly for which no leniency should be shown to anyone.

Stressing that the strike should be the last resort, Mr R. C. Sharma, an employee of the PGI, and a father of a BSc student, said, though the demands of the teachers might be genuine, but at least they should take the future of thousands of students into consideration and make some adjustment accordingly.While expressing concern at the strike, he said, it was the right time for the UGC to step in and take some decision to save the loss of studies for students.

Similarly, Mrs Paramjit Kaur, mother of a young student, was a worried lot and said that she will have to send her daughter for tuitions. She said the people were fed up with such strikes and the teachers should lodge their resentment, if any, after attending their classes.

However, parents were skeptical of the assurance of the representative bodies of teachers that teachers would take extra classes. They were of the view that extra classes on holidays would result in wastage of precious time of the students.

One lecture costs Rs 620

According to calculations, if a newly recruited lecturer takes 180 classes in a year and is paid salary and allowances as per the Rastogi committee recommendations, the wages of a single 45-minute lecture come to a staggering Rs 620.

The agitating teachers, however, want the UGC grades. If calculated under the UGC scales, a single lecture will get a new teacher Rs 800.