THE very fact that more than 3,000 full-time teachers of public university work part time at different private universities, mostly without the approval of their primary institution, speaks volume of not only the professional and personal integrity of the individuals concerned but also the general lack of accountability in the public universities. Moreover, according to a report published in New Age on Saturday, quoting a senior assistant director of the University Grants Commission, many of these teachers take classes in 4-5 universities at a time. While public university teachers are allowed to take up part-time employment under the existing rules, they must obtain the approval of their main employer to do so. Furthermore, they are required to pay 10 per cent of their earnings from the part-time work to their primary institution. Suffice to say, enforcement of such rules seems to have gone by default. Although the UGC chairman, who happens to be a former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, rightly says that ‘if teachers take classes in more than one university for only money, they are not doing justice to the public money’ and that ‘this is unacceptable’, it will be foolhardy to expect the errant teachers to come to their senses and do the right thing.
Public university teachers who take class in private universities without the permission of their primary institution not only break the rules mentioned above but also do something utterly unethical. It is unethical because such a situation largely deprives the students of the public universities of the service the relevant teachers are paid for. Also, one cannot say for sure that such a situation enables the teachers concerned to give full attention to the students — neither in the public or the private universities. Reports have it that there is no dearth of teachers in different public universities, including Dhaka University, who hardly take sufficient number of classes and thus leave students to appear in examinations without completing the stipulated courses. Dhaka University professor emeritus Anisuzzaman has rightly pointed out that teaching in public universities in particular is a full-time job, and that university teachers have many things to do with their students in addition to taking classes. True, public university teachers in general get a relatively poor pay that is not adequate to meet even their everyday expenses, which may be why many of them opt for part-time work. That in no way justifies such illegal and unethical behaviour, though.
Ultimately, however, the responsibility rests on the shoulders of the grants commission and the public university administrations. They need to enforce the rules and regulations that dictate the appointment and service of the teachers. While the commission is perhaps right to demand ‘guidelines on part-time teaching and consultancy job for public university teachers’, such guidelines would count for little, if not effectively complied with or enforced.