Govt-aided college introduces rotational headship

LUCKNOW: To get the best out of its teachers, a government-aided postgraduate college affiliated to Lucknow University has introduced rotational headship in its departments. The Bappa Sri Narain Vocational PG College (KKV) made the decision to give all its associate professors a chance to lead their departments.

With this, the college has set an example not only in the state capital, but in all of Uttar Pradesh. So far, this practice was prevalent only in LU, where it was introduced almost a decade ago. The college management said that this step would generate healthy competition among associate professors and contribute in taking the departments forward.

“The practice come into effect from December 1 onwards. Our teachers floated the idea and the management committee approved the proposal during its meeting on September 24 this year. The transition was very smooth,” said college principal Rakesh Chandra.

The associate professor who heads the department will hold the charge for a period of three years.

Normally, it’s the senior most teacher who gets the responsibility to head the department. In many cases, other teachers, who may be only a few months junior to the head, never get a chance to lead. With its decision, the college has tried to overcome this hurdle.

Although the headship will be rotated among associate professors, in departments where there is just one associate professor and several assistant professors, the inchargeship will be rotated among assistant professors too. The only criterion being that the assistant professor concerned should have completed five years of service in the college. The Lucknow University administration said they had no objection to the college rotating its department headship.

“It is the internal matter of the college. We do not interfere. There is no head of the department in colleges. They only have incharges without any statutory powers,” said LU vice-chancellor SP Singh.