Teachers at IIEST, Shibpur, have written to the institute’s acting director imploring him to “redirect attention to more pressing matters like basic infrastructure, restoration of critical research facilities” to ensure normal academic activities.
The teachers said in a letter to acting director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti: “This (redirecting attention to more pressing matters) would contribute significantly to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the teaching and learning process.”
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to Chakrabarti failed to elicit any response.
The letter was sent in response to a communication in which the institute’s registrar had asked the heads of all departments to submit weekly activity reports of their departments “on the last working day of each week”.
The IIEST teachers’ association wrote: “Despite its seemingly innocent and bureaucratic nature, the said directive has raised doubts and concerns within the teaching community. The operative part of the order suggests a despicable attitude towards the teaching community at IIEST Shibpur.”
It is in this context that the institute’s director has been asked to redirect his attention to more pressing issues, said the secretary of the teachers’ association, Tapendu Mandal, who has signed the
letter.
Mandal points out that many students of the residential institute are being forced to stay in rented PG accommodation outside the campus because of lack of adequate hostel facilities and research is suffering because high-end machines are not functional as the institute is not paying for the annual maintenance contracts.
“It is a matter of regret that IIEST, which is a residential campus, cannot provide accommodation to its students. No new hostel and classroom has come up despite a surge in student intake. The existing hostels are not being maintained properly. Research work across departments is suffering because high-end machines have become non-functional as the annual maintenance fees have remained unpaid,” Mandal told Metro.
“Instead of addressing these deficiencies, which we have flagged time and again, why is the administration focused on seeking weekly activity reports? Don’t they have anything meaningful to concentrate on?”
The institute’s acting registrar had last week issued an order that said: “It is hereby instructed… to submit one-page weekly report on the activities of their departments….”
The teachers have written: “We believe that the imposition of such administrative order is disconnected from the core principles of academia and hinders rather than
facilitates the primary
objectives.”
In April, IIEST teachers marched through the campus as part of a “Save IIEST” initiative to protest the absence of basic infrastructure, erratic recruitment and lack of appropriate classrooms and laboratories.
A member of the teachers’ association said: “If the accommodation facilities are not improved, bright students cannot be attracted. If bright students don’t enrol and research continues to suffer, the institute’s national ranking will keep going down.”
According to him, the institute is reeling under an acute staff crunch as there has been no recruitment over the past year.
“Addressing the shortcomings should be a priority now, instead of seeking weekly activity reports,” the teacher said.
This newspaper reported last week that teachers at the institute protested the Union education ministry’s decision to extend the tenure of Chakrabarti as officiating director for six months a second time because the officiating director is not authorised to initiate any recruitment process.
