Teachers’ off-campus jobs hurt students

Teachers busy with off-campus jobs are adding to the miseries of the students. Academic activities of many colleges affiliated with different universities are being hampered as several of their teachers are engaged in private business concerns and part time jobs in NGOs, private universities and donor funded projects.

“Many of the teachers engaged in profitable jobs outside the campus do not take prior permission and neglect their academic duties. Quality of education suffers, as teachers are more inclined to their off-campus duties, and students of different faculties and institutions continue to suffer,” says Hussain Jafari, a teacher from a local college.

“For their part, a number of teachers blame poor salary and facilities that induce them to take up off-campus work. As a result, they become irregular and unpunctual in their scheduled classes and careless about in-course and tutorial classes and examinations. The teachers every now and then fail to notify about their absence from the classes,” says Nazar Haider, a student from one of the city colleges.

“Some teachers of a college have become quite inactive and unreceptive in the classrooms due to regular off-campus work load because they have also joined the rat race of money and are finding difficulty in maintaining their academic activities as majority of their students are worried about their lackluster attitude in the classrooms,” says Ali Hasan, another student.

“Many teachers of Mathematics, English Language and Literature, Physics, Computer Science, Sociology and Economics, Microbiology, Chemistry, Finance, Business Administration and Commerce faculty departments are rushing for consultancies and part-time jobs at the private companies and educational institutions for lucrative pay,” says Zaigham Abbas, a former principal of different colleges.

“High-level initiatives are needed by the universities’ administrations to take some effective steps to stem the growing outside activities of the teachers,” adds Zaigham.

Nazar Kazmi, a principal of a college says: “Since decades, the authorities have not taken any initiatives to regulate or curb off-campus activities of teachers. The university authorities do not know whether any teacher is involved in off-campus activities. It seems that there is no authority to look after the matter. If any allegation is received against anyone in this regard, action must be taken against him or her.”

“The absence of teachers really adds to the sufferings of students while some teachers frequently miss regular classes, class tests and other curriculum. The situation further worsens, as the authorities do not appoint sufficient number of teachers on leave vacancy and many teachers do not resume their academic activities after the end of their leave period. The process of warning them to return or termination of their job is not easy,” says Husnain Nazish from a local university administration.

Nasir Abbas, a former professor, says, “Young teachers going abroad for gaining the latest knowledge is very much reasonable, adding that the authorities should appoint sufficient number of teachers on leave vacancy to run the departments smoothly. But due to the complicated and lengthy process of teachers’ recruitment at the university, it is not possible to appoint a teacher soon after a teacher goes on leave.”

“As per rules, advertising in newspaper is needed for recruiting teachers and the recruitment process takes about months while a university can recruit dozens of teachers within weeks through walk-in interviews. Authorities must take initiatives if any department or institute needs to appoint teachers on leave vacancy,” adds Nasir.