March salaries of open university teachers have been suspended

KOLLAM: Due to the lack of own income and disallowance of the government grant for this financial year, the salaries of teachers and non-teaching staff of Sree Narayanaguru Open University have been withheld for the month of March. About Rs 54 lakh per month is needed to pay the salaries of the vice chancellor and others. A good sum of money is required for running local study centers where counseling classes are held. The operational cost of regional study centers is met from the University's own income.

20 percent of the government grant is given to all universities at the beginning of the financial year, but it has not been released yet this time. Other universities have paid their salary because their income is high, but the Open University has low income because student enrollments are not rising. 1.5 crores is the revenue for the last financial year. It is hoped that if UGC approves more courses this time, it will be able to stand on its own feet. In the financial year 2022-23, Rs 11.40 crore was earmarked in the budget as a grant, but only 68 percent of this was sanctioned. The government later withdrew some amount from it.

No action for redeployment

The act said that teachers and non-teaching staff appointed by other universities for conducting distance courses should be redeployed to the Open University. Only Kerala had permanent teachers; Calicut and Kannur had temporary teachers. All the universities have appointed non-teaching staff on permanent posts for distance courses though.

Despite repeated requests from the government, the universities are not providing information on excess staff. The explanation given by the University of Kerala is that the teachers of the distance education department have been shifted to the university campus. Redeployment could save the government part of the Open University's salary costs.