Online Survey of Professional Social Workers in India

Dear Professional Social Workers, Greetings from Mizoram. As we all know that there are a few studies on professional social workers, their background, their practice, and problems in different fields. As internet is increasingly connecting people across the globe, it provides ample opportunity to conduct nation wide studies on professional social workers, social work practice and social work education in India as well. I have successfully conducted one such study in 2010. This time, I would like to compile the social economic profile of professional social workers in India. It will be conducted in two phases. In its first phase of our survey, I would like to compile a list of professional social workers who are willing to respond the online questionnaire. In the next phase, I will be inviting only the willing participants identified in this phase to respond to the next phase. Kindly, provide information about you and your willingness to be involved in this survey. This is a completely self-financed minor research project and the copies of the resultant publications will be sent to the respondents once they are published. I assure you that the information supplied will be kept strictly confidential. It will take only five minutes to complete this questionnaire. Yours sincerely, Kanagaraj To respond to this online questionnaire click the following url http://obsurvey.com/S2.aspx?id=ae768bab-bc98-4b3b-9c7a-35324a438681

Reformulation of UGCs New Regulation and PBAS Petition

Dear All,
As an effort to influence UGC for withdrawal and reformulation of its new regulation and PBA System, an online petition has been created and campaign has been launched. All stakeholders in public higher education system in India such as teachers, students, research scholars, parents of students and scholars etc. are requested to sign the petition and forward the same to Indian nationals all over the world.
To sign please click the title
If we are not who else will change the unjust order.We have to win. We will win. வெற்றி நமதே
In the struggle for promotion Quality, Parity, Justice and Transparency in Indian Higher Education.



Reformulation of UGCs New Regulation and PBAS Petition

Petition Submitted to UGC under RTI 2010 - Part II

II. Exclusion of M.Phil/Ph.D Experience from Experience
The new regulation also has excluded the research experience (M.Phil and Ph.D) from the calculation of minimum years of experience for appointment to the positions of associate professors and professors. All of us in the higher education sector are aware of the fact that for completing an M.Phil course, a minimum of two years spent while for completing a Ph.D at least five years are spent. Further, there is Junior and Senior Research Fellowships are provided to the scholars by UGC, CSIR, ICSSR, ICAR, etc as well as the universities concerned. The scholars are involved in teaching apart from active research.
The questions here are
• Why the research experience as full time research scholar (M.Phi/Ph.D) could not be considered as experience for direct recruitment and promotion (CAS)?
• What is the rationale for this exclusion of this research experience?
• When UGC gives 5 advance increments to fulltime Ph.D scholars (if they have got awarded) when they join a higher educational institution, why can’t the five years experience be considered for the position of associate professor and professor under direct requirement as well as CAS?
III. Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of PBAS with APIs
I would like to seek from your esteemed office certain important information on the PBAS with Academic Performance Indicators (APIs).
The new regulation has stipulated mandatory application of PBAS with three categories:
Category I: Teaching, Learning and Evaluation Related Activities
Category II: Co-Curricular, Extension and Professional Development Related Activities.
Category-III: Research and Academic Contributions
These categories each have a number of APIs, each having a differential score. And in each category there is a minimum score required for appointment of associate professor as well as professor posts. In this connection we require information in the form of answers to the following questions.
• What is the source for the conceptualisation of academic performance in higher education which is measured by the operational framework of PBAS with APIs? Is there any scientific behavioural theory or empirical literature base for that (in a journal article with high impact factor or a high quality book published by international publishers)? Kindly give the details of the literature. If possible supply copies of the same.
• Kindly give the academic profile of the members of the committee which has conceptualised and operationalised the PBA system with three categories of APIs? Specific information is requested on the academic background, subject, specialisation, teaching and research experience, publications of them (especially on their work on higher education, academic performance assessment ).
• Whether the draft PBAs with APIs was reviewed and appraised by established scholars in the field of testing and assessment of teachers under higher education system? If so kindly give information on the academic background, subject, specialisation, teaching and research experience, publications of them (especially on their work on higher education, and teacher performance assessment in higher education).
• On the part of UGC, was there any attempt made to test the empirical validity and reliability of this PBA system taking into consideration the rich socio economic and cultural diversity as well variations in the resource endowment of universities in the country? If any study was commissioned, kindly give the reports and data bases of such (Excel sheets/SPSS files).
• Under the PBAS, the three categories of APIs are weighted unequally and in each category of APIs, the teachers have to secure minimum total scores for recruitment or promotion. What are the sources for such assignment of differential scores and weights? Is there any empirical base for this differential weightage?

IV. Exclusion of Quality Indicators of Teaching and Research from PBAS
In the UGCs new regulation under the PBAS, the indicators of quality of teaching proposed in the draft regulation (Prof. Thiyagarajan Committee) such as student evaluation of teacher, expert evaluation of research work have been excluded(please see APPENDIX – III TABLE – II (B). Kindly, give information on the reasons for exclusion of these important indicators.
As a citizen of India, I request that as per the right to information act of Government of India, I may be provided with all above requested information in soft form so that the time, cost, energy will be minimum.
Yours sincerely,



(KANAGARAJ EASWARAN)
Place: Aizawl
Date: 11-08-2010

Petition Submitted to UGC under RTI Act 2010 (Part I)

To
The Chairman,
University Grants Commission (UGC),
Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi - 110 002.
Sir,
Sub: Requesting Further Information on the UGC Regulations 2010
Ref: http://www.ugc.ac.in/policy/revised_finalugcregulationfinal10.pdf
I have gone through the new regulation of your esteemed commission for recruitment and promotion of teachers in the universities and colleges. As a citizen of India, I would like to seek the following specific information regarding the new regulation. May, I request you to kindly supply information to my email ID in soft form?
I. Minimum Qualification and Experience for Teaching Positions (Direct and CAS)
The new regulation of your esteemed commission has widened the distance (gap) between the assistant professor and associate professor positions in terms of the minimum number of years service required for appointment (in the direct recruitment and CAS promotion) as well in the pay scale. During the last two periods of pay commissions there was equi-distance between the adjacent levels. On the other hand, in both the terms the distance between associate professor and professor positions have been drastically reduced. Virtually there is no gap between them in the pay scale.
Until now, under the CAS the distance between a lecturer and reader was 9-11 years while under the new regime it will be 12-14 years. But the distance between the reader and professor was 8 years. Likewise in the direct recruitment, the minimum number of years experience required to become an associate professor has been increased from 5 to 8 while the same for professorship remains at 10 years. But the number of years experience required for an associate professor to become a professor has got decreased by 2 years.
In this connection, I would like to seek information from you in the form of answer to the following questions.
• What led the UGC to reduce the distance (gap) in salary as well as number of years experience between Associate Professors and Professors?
• Why the distance between assistant professor and associate professor positions has been increased? (In salary as well as number of year’s experience).
• Why there is increased waiting period for the assistant professors with less salary, lower prestige, and power in the higher education system under the lower tier of the higher education.
• Ph.D. which remained an essential qualification for promotion to the position of Reader in the previous two pay periods has been removed and the selection grade lecturers were promoted automatically to associate professorship (which is more less equal to professorship) without undergoing any assessment process or interview under the new regulation. If assessment and interview are necessary for the people below why not it is applied to those who are already above. Kindly give information on the rationale for such policy change.

Class Polarisation and Marginalisation: How and Why

The UGCs new regulation would polarize the teaching community in higher education system in to two classes from the existing three tier system. Until now, there are three classes of teachers viz., lecturers, readers, and professors. These three classes have remained at equi-distance both in terms of salary as well as experience. By virtually nullifying the difference between associate professors (those who not have Ph.D and/ or any publications) in terms of the number of years experience and salary and professors (a perusal of tables 1 and 2 would reveal this idea clear). There is one more striking problem with this new regulation is that the assistant professors are marginalized with a lower pay scale for 11 -14 years period with nominal increments. They have to work hard to secure points (but those who have no publications will evaluate them, judge them as experts because there is no evidence to say most of the university professors will have 10 papers. It is not certain an average associate professor in India would have 5 publications. Also there is no stipulation only the professors with 400 points or associate professors with 300 will be involved in recruitment and promotion processes as experts).
Thus it is clear that the UGCs new regulation marginalizes the assistant professors. The question here for whom it benefits. It benefits the associate professors to some extent and the selection grade lecturers who stagnated for years because of their inability to complete Ph.D or produce publications on par with Ph.D. It seems clear that UGC wants to hold high the interests of these people by sacrificing the interests of the young, performing assistant professors.
Students of social sciences would appreciate the thesis that class polarization in any society would intensify class conflict as there will be oppression and exploitation under such bipolar system. Though UGC has come out with a new regulation, it has not clearly specified why it is polarizing the academic community and marginalizing the lowest class(assistant professors) in the system. It is not clear why it brings up the readers/selection grade lecturers who have no Ph.D, publications or bare minimum score. As a public authority it has to answer these queries. The associations of teachers in the colleges and universities have to demand answer from the UGC. It is significant to note that the members of teaching community in the central universities have submitted petitions seeking to redress these grievances. The UGC could not give up. Even after the publication of the new regulation UGC refuses to give appointment to the leaders of teaching community.
Why this marginalization or class polarization and exclusion of young teachers in this young nation? This could be attributed to the young teacher’s under-representation (exclusion) in the academic bodies, as well as in the leadership of teachers associations and consequent powerlessness of them. In the existing university system, the academic bodies viz., board of studies, school board, academic council, executive council etc. are dominated by professors to a large extent. On the other hand university teachers associations and federation of them are ruled over by the selection grade lecturers. Thinking that these leaders will protect the interests the assistant professors all over India have supported their demands. But this leadership has failed to protect the interests of the lowest class and maximized its own gains which are visible in tables 1 and 2.

Questions on UGCs PBAS with APIs

UGCs new regulation has stipulated mandatory application of Performance Based Appraisal System(PBAS). PBAS includes three categories. They are
Category I: Teaching, Learning and Evaluation Related Activities
Category II: Co-Curricular, Extension and Professional Development Related Activities.
Category-III: Research and Academic Contributions
These categories each have a number of APIs, each having a differential score. And in each category there is a minimum score required for appointment of associate professor as well as professor posts. In this connection we require information from the UGC in the form of answers to the following questions.

What is the source of the conceptualisation of academic performance in higher education which is measured by the operational framework of PBAS with APIs?
Is there any scientific behavioural theory or empirical literature base for this PBAS? (in a journal article with high impact factor or a high quality book published by international publishers)?
Whether UGC has made any attempt to test the validity and reliability of this PBAS system taking into consideration the rich socio-economic and cultural diversity in the country?
Further, the three categories of APIs are weighted unequally and each of the APIs is differently scored. What is the sources for such assignment of differential scores and weights? Is there any empirical base for this differential weightage? Is there,any scientific logic behind this.
Some related questions in this connection are.
Whether the committee which conceptualised and operationalised the PBAS with APIs included any educationists(with high quality of publication), psychologists or experts of social indicators with proven track record in education testing and assessment?

Whether the draft PBAS with APIs was reviewed and appraised by established scholars in the field of testing and assessment of teachers under higher education system?

In the PBAS,mandated by the UGC the indicators of quality of teaching and research proposed in the draft regulation(UGC) such as student evaluation of teacher, expert evaluation of research work have been excluded. Why these important indicators of quality were excluded?

Clarifications and Information needed from UGC

The new regulation of UGC has widened the distance (gap) between the assistant professor and associate professor positions in terms of the minimum number of years service required for appointment (in the direct recruitment and CAS promotion) as well in the pay band. On the other hand, in both the terms the distance between associate professor and professor positions have been drastically reduced. Virtually there is no gap between them in the pay band. Until now, under the CAS, the distance between a lecturer and reader was 9-11 years while under the new regime it will be 12-14 years. But the distance between the reader and professor was 8 years. Likewise the minimum number of years experience required to become an associate professor has been increased from 5 to 8 while the same for professorship remains at 10 years. But the number of years between professor and assistant professor has got decreased by 2 years.
In this connection, we demand answers to the questions.
• What led the UGC to reduce the distance (gap) in salary as well as number of years experience between Associate Professors and Professors?
• Why the distance between assistant professor and associate professor positions has been increased? (In salary as well as number of year’s experience).
• Why there is increased waiting period for the assistant professors with less salary, lower prestige, and power in the higher education system under the lower tier of the higher education. Simply why this kind of marginalisation of young people.
• In what way this class polarisation approach will improve the quality of higher education in the country.
The new regulation also has excluded the research experience (M.Phil and Ph.D) from the calculation of minimum years of experience for appointment to the positions of associate professors and professors. All of us in the higher education sector are aware of the fact that for completing an M.Phil course, a minimum of two years spent while for completing a Ph.D at least five years are spent. Further, there is Junior and Senior Research Fellowships are provided to the scholars by UGC, CSIR, ICSSR, ICAR, etc as well as the universities concerned. The scholars are involved in teaching apart from active research.
The questions here are
• Why the research experience as full time research scholar (M.Phi/Ph.D) could not be considered as experience?
• What is the rationale for this exclusion of this research experience?
• When UGC gives 5 advance increments to fulltime Ph.D scholars (if they have got awarded) when they join a higher educational institution, why can’t the five years experience be considered for the position of associate professor and professor under direct requirement as well as CAS?