Chennai, Sep 18 : The recruitment of Assistant Professors in government Arts and Science colleges across Tamil Nadu has remained stalled for more than seven years, creating a vacuum of nearly 4,000 sanctioned posts.

The prolonged delay, caused by legal hurdles, has forced the Higher Education Department to rely heavily on guest lecturers to meet classroom requirements.

At present, close to 8,000 guest lecturers are working in 171 government Arts, Science, and Education colleges.

Their numbers have steadily risen as the state has been unable to appoint permanent faculty.

The recent sanctioning of 15 new government Arts and Science colleges added to the demand, prompting the appointment of more than 570 new guest lecturers, of whom over 560 have already joined duty.

The issue can be traced back to a 2010 commitment by the Higher Education Department to regularise the services of existing honorary lecturers, a promise that remains unfulfilled.

Although the department has completed all formalities for fresh recruitment, including the conduct of the State Eligibility Test, the results are still pending before the courts, preventing appointments.

Pay disparity is another major concern. Guest lecturers in Tamil Nadu draw the lowest remuneration in the country, far below the standards ensured in neighbouring and northern states.

While states such as Kerala, Puducherry, Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi offer salaries between '40,000 and '57,700 a month in line with University Grants Commission norms, Tamil Nadu's lecturers continue to receive significantly less.

The prolonged uncertainty has pushed more than 500 lecturers to file about 54 cases in the Madras High Court and its Madurai Bench seeking regularisation.

Though several favourable rulings have been delivered, the state has continued to file appeals, leaving the matter unresolved.

Education experts caution that excessive reliance on temporary staff may eventually affect the quality of teaching and research in higher education institutions.

They stress the need for immediate recruitment to fill the sanctioned Assistant Professor posts, regularisation of qualified lecturers already in service, and long-term measures to prevent such disputes from recurring.

/IANS