Teachers write to IIEST board chief for director

Teachers at the IIEST have written to the chairperson of the institute’s board of governors expressing their “deep concern regarding the prolonged delay in appointing a regular (full-term) director”, which they said is impeding “timely decision-making and the overall functioning” of the institute.

The letter to Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, wife of the late Union minister Ananth Kumar, says: “Even the faculty recruitment cycle initiated in 2019 could not be completed yet....”

Last month, the Union education ministry had extended Parthasarathi Chakrabarti’s tenure as officiating director of the Shibpur institute for six months a second time, triggering protests from a section of the teachers.

The five-year tenure of Chakrabarti as director had ended on May 9. He has been functioning as officiating director since.

The teachers have written to the chairperson that they are awaiting a response from her as this would save the institute “from uncertainties, ad hocism, and indecision”.

The letter — signed by Tapendu Mandal, secretary of the IIEST Teachers’ Association — was emailed to the chairperson on Monday.

It says: “I am writing to you on behalf of the IIEST Teachers’ Association (IIESTTA) to express our deep concern regarding the prolonged delay in appointing a regular director for our esteemed institute. You may be aware that the process of appointing a regular Director was initiated almost a year ago….

“The inordinate delay in finalising this appointment and instead repeatedly assigning interim charges… to the director upon completion of his five-year term, has begun to impede timely decision-making and the overall functioning of our institution. Even the faculty recruitment cycle initiated in 2019 could not be completed yet.”

A member of the teachers’ association said about 35 per cent of the 300-odd sanctioned teaching posts at the IIEST were vacant.

The teachers have repeatedly pointed out that an officiating director is not authorised to initiate any teacher recruitment process.

“We are facing delay in recruitment at a time when the institute has witnessed a surge in student intake. We think a fresh extension of Chakrabarti’s term as officiating director would mean a further delay in the recruitment process, severely hampering the teaching-learning activities,” a teacher told Metro on Monday.

The absence of a full-term director is also coming in the way of creating basic infrastructure, and restoration of critical research facilities which could ensure normal academic activities, said Mandal, the secretary of the teachers’ association.

“Many students of the residential institute are being forced to stay in rented PG accommodation outside the campus owing to lack of adequate hostel facilities. Research is suffering because high-end machines are not functional as the institute is not paying for the annual maintenance contracts. An officiating director cannot address these issues,” said Mandal.

Calls and a text message from this newspaper to Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, who was appointed chairperson of the board of governors in September, failed to elicit any response.

IIEST teachers had last week written to the officiating director imploring him to “redirect attention to more pressing matters like basic infrastructure, restoration of critical research facilities” to ensure normal academic activities.

The letter was emailed to Chakrabarti in response to an order from the institute’s registrar asking the heads of all departments to submit weekly activity reports “on the last working day of each week”.