The Story of Ad hoc Professors

The following write-up is an English translation of an article written in Punjabi language (Gurmukhi Script) by Dr. Vinod Mittal in 2018. 
The title of the original article is “ਕੱਚੇ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰਾਂ ਦੀ ਦਾਸਤਾਨ” (Kacche Professoran Di Daastan). It can be read here.

I have not done any fact-checking but rather merely translated the original article because it raises a lot of questions on the current system.
We are moving towards dark times! 

There was a time when hearing the word ‘professor’ would make one bow with reverence from inside. It seemed like there was nothing bigger in this world than being a professor. The ingenuity, the social and financial status of a professor used to inspire so much that we used to think that if a student knew how to dream right then he would definitely dream to become a professor. These days the ones who study sincerely and earn degrees are faring even worse than class 4 employees.  

In spite of coming from a lower middle-class family I set out to study at the university. Many families though that I had turned rebellious. Then, there used to be an euphoria to study. Owing to financial constraints I used to take some tuition, do some typing work or, do any type of work which came by. That time many fellow colleagues were heading towards foreign countries. We used to discuss whether leaving for other countries was not running from responsibilities.

After earning the conventional degrees begins the period of finding jobs. We, all friends, used to thoroughly scan all the newspapers in the library for any vacancies for the post of an Assistant Professor. In search of jobs, we used to go to colleges with a bag filled with the proofs of education and other qualifications. In the evening, while sitting together and sharing experiences we used to review why nobody among us could find a job. The reason was the lack of a recommendation. One year passed in realizing that getting appointed as an Assistant professor even for an academic session required some advocacy and support from the college management, principal, university officials, or some political person. Many a time the advertisement for a vacancy was put for a specific person.

When we turned towards government colleges we found that no permanent vacancy was filled in the last two decades. If some vacancy was filled, it was termed as a ‘guest faculty’, under the terms of which a meager lump sum of Rs. 7000 was paid as a salary from the Assistant Professor PTA fund. Presently, this amount is Rs. 10,000, which is approximately one-third of the pay of a regular class 4 employee.

This way the ideal picture starts to break. Slowly, a few friends followed other youth and joined on ad hoc basis with hopes of getting permanent in a couple of years but long waits didn’t yield anything good. Tired of all this, some went to foreign countries, and some chose to stay here and fight the condition. During this time, the trend of engineering courses reached its peak and meanwhile a friend of mine met some official from government-funded college who got him the job for an academic session but for small pay. While employed at the college he shared with us many experiences of the large scale corruption in the Department of Technical Education. Principals used to appoint professors for one session after taking money from them. If someone was to be appointed for 3 years then the salary of an year had to be paid as bribe. To get a contract this process was repeated each year.    

Friends working in government-aided colleges had to often flatter the college officials and Principal. They had to present them with gifts on festivals such as Diwali and Lohri. Those who didn’t do this lost their place in the following session.  Temporary professors are also made to do administrative works. For a long time, in many colleges positions for non-teaching staff have not been filled because that work is now taken care of by the temporary professors.   

Privatization of education has resulted in the opening of educational institutes at every street corner where education has become pure business and degrees are worth not more than plain paper. There is no such thing as education and professor in these institutions. Professors are recruited on the stipulation of getting more admissions in the college. They are paid a commission on per-student basis.

Because of non-recruitment for a long time, an invisible wall has been established between the old staff and the new professors in higher education institutions. Old professors call the new ones ad hoc. They are not made part of the important decisions of the organization and are often imposed with unnecessary works. Preparations for various functions, conducting and checking exams, looking after the cleanliness of the building, overtime without pay, working on holidays, personal works are some of the quintessential things that the ad hoc professors are made to do. If we talk about the pay difference between temporary and permanent staff then it has reached up to 10 times in some places.

There are many government colleges in Punjab where there is no permanent professor; if there is then only one or two. Such colleges are running thanks to the ad hoc professors. To save Punjab’s higher education some well-wishers took to the law. In 2015, a court ruling asked the government-aided colleges to fill the long-vacant 1925 posts of Assistant Professors. A ray of hope sparks. In the meantime, this order was sacrificed to the governmental foul play. Instead of permanent recruitment of Assistant Professors in colleges, a notification for recruitment for ‘3-year contract on basic pay’ was released. Three years have passed, neither have the 1925 vacancies have been filled, nor has anybody been regularized, and none has been fortunate enough to receive their full pay. The counting of these allowed vacancies is based on old data.

During this time, on January 15, 2015 the government came forward with another disastrous notification. According to this, all the new recruits in the Punjab government would only be paid basic salary for the probationary period. The probationary period has been increased from an year to two years to three years. Government aid provided to colleges and universities is reducing day by day, and this amount is also not paid for a long time. As a consequence, fees are increased and education starts to slip away from the hands of the poor.

Professors in many universities in Punjab are temporary. Some are called as ‘ad hoc’, some are termed as ‘on contract’, and some are known as ‘guest faculty’. Responsibility of many educational institutions is on the shoulders of these ‘guest faculty’. These faculties are not counted as employees of the organization but all kinds of works are obtained from them. A big problem is that the people who are sitting in high ranks do not want the change.

A long time has elapsed and many in my peer group have still not been able to become a support to their parents. Many remain unmarried. Those who are married are afraid to start a family because it is hard to make a living with such scanty salaries. Big and fancy degrees, multi-year experience is unable to fulfill their needs. How will students idolize such temporary Assistant Professors? I feel pity for the innocence of the students and researchers who come to these higher education institutions to take admission. I fail to understand, as teachers, are we building or decimating their future?

The bad phase of the education sector started in the last decade of the 20^th century when, in the name of improvement, governments handed over education to businessmen. In recent times, teacher unions broke into various factions after having falling prey to evil political tricks. What was gained? Only false promises and a corrupt and damaging education system. We are living in a dangerous time. It is time that not only teachers and students but the whole society must wake up, or else we shall be left with only the myth of education.