Newly appointed junior lecturers put on canvassing duties, forced to sacrifice summer holidays

Intermediate Education officials orally instructed the lecturers to prepare an action plan to pass students who failed in intermediate, to improve enrolments in colleges and to visit the colleges whenever required till May 20

Adilabad: Newly appointed junior lecturers are being forced to sacrifice their summer holidays after being asked to discharge various duties.

The State government had declared holidays for schools and colleges from April 24 to June 11. However, Intermediate Education officials orally instructed the lecturers to prepare an action plan to pass students who failed in intermediate, to improve enrolments in colleges by conducting canvassing and to visit the colleges whenever required till May 20.

Lecturers, who received appointment orders on March 12, said they were involved in preparing action to enhance pass percentage, to carry out publicity to increase enrollments in colleges and to visit the colleges to perform any other important task. They regretted that they could not spend the holidays and attend family members during medical emergencies.

“The officials did not issue formal orders, but asked us to discharge duties by visiting the colleges during summer holidays. They held us responsible for the poor pass percentage of students, even as we did not take classes in the 2024-25 academic year. We had to prepare an action plan to ensure all students of a subject pass in examinations,” a lecturer said.

The lecturers said they had planned to spend the vacations with their family members at tourist and pilgrimage centres. They said the oral instructions of officials spoiled their plans. They wanted the government to provide compensatory leaves by considering the days spent in college as working days.

After 14 long years, the junior lecturers’ recruitment notification was issued by the previous BRS government via the Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC) in 2022. Accordingly, the then BRS government filled up 1,392 posts in 27 subjects of the intermediate course. Previously, the junior lecturer posts were notified in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government in 2008.

As many as 1,139 lecturers, including 581 under multi-zone I and 558 under multi-zone have been given appointment orders. Of the total, 152 of the 154 notified mathematics posts were selected for appointment. Similarly, 116 and 109 candidates were for 117 Hindi and 112 Physics vacancies that were notified by the Commission.