The two government Siddha medical colleges in Tamil Nadu are facing an unprecedented shortage of lecturers in all the key subjects, thanks to the apathy of the state health department for not advising the state Medical Recruitment Board (TNMRB) to fill up the existing vacancies.
According to reliable sources, there are 45 vacancies of lecturers in the two government institutions working at Palayamkottai in Thirunelveli district and at Anna Nagar in Chennai.
The department has recently promoted all the lecturers into the posts of Readers and Professors, but it has not taken further step to appoint fresh hands for lecturer posts. Almost all the Readers and Professors will retire in next three years.
The Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) last year gave approval for commencing new branches of PG courses in these colleges. But the state government is not supporting the efforts of the institutions to start new PG programs by providing sufficient teaching staff, sources alleged.
“Since all the lecturers have become or been promoted as readers and professors, there is no teacher in the post of lecturer now in any of these two government colleges. If the government does not appoint lecturers, the institutions will be unable to start new branches of PG programmes”, said a Siddha academic expert.
According to him, it has been continuing that, to overcome the shortage of teachers in the past several years, the health department was making working arrangements for medical practitioners in the PHCs as ‘diversion of duties’ to work three days in these teaching institutes as faculty members. This obstructs the functioning of the PHCs three days each in every week.
Allegations are that the key subjects like Gunapatam (Materia Medica), Shirappu Maruthuvam (Special Medicine), Noi Nadal (Pathology), Kuzhanthai Maruthuvam (Paediatrics), Mahilar Maruthuvam (Gynaecology).etc are not fully taught to the graduates and post-graduates because of lack of teachers.
The basic qualification for a lecturer post is MD in Siddha. Ph D is not required to become an Assistant Lecturer in Siddha medical colleges.