Bhubaneswar: Even though the Odisha government has made it mandatory for all the teaching and non-teaching staff of colleges to adhere to the seven-hour work rule, the rule is found to be violated openly in different higher education institutions in the state.
While the state government had introduced the seven-hour work rule for college faculty long ago, the Higher Education department also issued a fresh directive to all the teaching and non-teaching staff of higher education institutes before the new academic session of 2024-25 to strictly follow the norm.
In a directive, the department has asked the principals of all government, aided and unaided colleges to ensure teaching and non-teaching staff of the institutions are present on the campus from 10 am to 5 pm every working day and submit their biometric attendance.
It further asked the authorities concerned to open the institutions’ gates before 10 am for the convenience of students.
However, the seven-hour work rule is being blatantly violated with impunity in different regions which high concentration of higher education institutions despite the government’s directive
Sources said different regional directorates of education (RDEs) including those at Bhubaneswar, and Berhampur have informed the Higher Education department that faculty members of many colleges under their jurisdiction are not registering their attendance through biometric devices even though there is a strict government guideline to this effect.
At several colleges, faculty members are also not staying on campus after registering their attendance.
Colleges in Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak and Keonjhar come under the jurisdiction of RDE-Balasore. Similarly, colleges under Khurda, Puri, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Dhenkanal and Angul come under RDE-Bhubaneswar. Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts are under RDE-Berhampur.
Officials of the directorates recently made surprise visits to all the colleges under their jurisdiction and found that the faculty members were missing in most of the educational institutions, particularly during the afternoon session. Most of the colleges wore a deserted look in the absence of teaching staff.
They have pointed out that both teaching and non-teaching staff are coming to colleges early to register their fingerprints in the attendance device and moving out of the campus only to return to register their exit fingerprints, thereby ensuring a record of their seven-hour stay in the college.
In letters to principals of all government, non-government aided and unaided colleges under both the RDEs, the officials said this practice has been putting college administrations under severe pressure. They said surprise visits will be made to the colleges again in subsequent days and stringent action taken against the staff found deviating from the attendance guideline.
Notably, way back in 2019 the higher education department had issued an official notification to the teachers of all the government and aided non-government colleges in the state to perform duty for at least seven hours on every working day.
In addition to the normal teaching-related works, teachers are required to devote time for library, research, taking extra classes for late entrants, taking corrective classes for the needy students, monitoring student attendance and assisting college authorities in teaching and non-teaching assignments, the department had said in a communication to the college principals.
