Government puts off order increasing teaching hours

BENGALURU: Putting off the government order to increase the teaching hours of professors, higher education minister RV Deshpande on Thursday decided to seek the UGC's directions on how to utilize six hours of research time given to college teachers.
According to the new circular, assistant professors have to teach 22 hours instead of the mandatory 16 hours and professors/associate professors have to teach 20 hours instead of 14.
During a heated debate in the legislative council, Deshpande relented to the opposition's demand not to extend the teaching hours. The teachers' constituency MLCs attacked Deshpande for being insensitive to teachers.
Deshpande justified the order saying teachers have to be held accountable for the 40 hours of work mandated by the UGC. "We have not made it mandatory. If professors are doing research then we shall make 16 hours of teaching hours mandatory. For those who are not doing any research, we have requested them to utilize the time for teaching," he said.
However, the opposition did not relent and asked him to refer the issue to the UGC.