TN arts colleges get 15K more seats, but only 252 additional guest lecturers

FULFILLING its promise made in this year's budget that 15,000 more seats will be created in government arts and science colleges, the Tamil Nadu government's Higher Education (HE) department issued an order last week to introduce 252 new courses in 100 colleges across TN.

- BINITA JAISWAL @ Chennai

However, the department has asked the Collegiate Education Commissioner (CEC) to engage only temporary guest lecturers (GLs) to cater to the increased number of courses and students. Moreover, it has sanctioned less than 50% of the number of GLs sought by the CEC.

As per the order, the proposal sent by the CEC to the government said that 558 GLs will be required to teach these 252 courses for the first-year students who join these courses in both first and second shifts in colleges. Consequently, the CEC has sought ₹13.95 crore for the 2025-26 academic year to pay salaries to these GLs at the rate of ₹25,000 per month. (GLs are not paid salaries during the two-month vacation period).

However, without explicitly mentioning any reason, the order sanctioned approval for engaging 252 GLs and allotted ₹6.3 crore for their salaries.