For the last month and 3-4 days, I have been looking for a job in some engineering college as a lecturer in Communication Skills and English. However, I am termed as ineligible and not suitable for the job because I am not M.A. in English and have not cleared the NET examination as per the rules of AICTE.
There are many reasons why I am writing this. I will report two instances where I came to know how many of the top-notch colleges in Punjab work and how they deal to you (no grudges here!). Apart from that, I wanted to contest why AICTE should put such a rule? We are taught this subject in the very first semester and even then we are not able to take it up as a teaching subject. Why? Why they teach us then. If the authorities feel that a person who has done masters in English can teach communication skills to the students of engineering, then I think they do not catch the vibes of need of this subject.
Engineering students have no need to go deep into the realm of literature and other literary terms. They just need to get fluent in their communication and need to know the language in a manner so as to clearly understand it. A person who has masters in English does not, necessarily, possess the persona that is required to attract students in the need of this subject. If you visit colleges, often students do not like studying English–they want to be expressive not British. Lot of psychological and personality related issues come to fore when you deal with communication skills.
People who come from management background should be given preference instead of people who have only English background. Engineering students do not have to communicate in English alone. They, on the other hand, need to know how to communicate effectively. This is where I did not like the idea of AICTE putting this condition. They have limited the scope of this subject and have truly made it a textual subject than anything else.
What happened at Chandigarh Engineering College, Landran
I sent my resume and clearly stated that I want to appear for an interview for lecturer in communication skills. They called me for an interview and when I reached there, they were surprised that how can I apply for a job to which I do not even qualify. I was pretty surprised and angry that if I was not eligible for this post, why they called me? Why they wasted my time and money?
However, being an engineering student myself, I know that they don’t care about you–they have that mechanical sort of system in which you come and go for money and don’t have any value. They were right in not hiring me because of the rule but not in calling me when I was not eligible.
What happened at Lovely Professional University–LPU
This was more farcical than anything else. I applied for the post of communication skills and got a call. I got up at around 4 in the morning and picked the bus to the campus–it took me around 4 hours to reach there and when I met the concerned person, he said: “Who called you? We did not make calls for communication skills today?”
I told them that I got a call but they were pretty surprised. At the end they told me that the HODs were not available because there was not interview scheduled and so I will have to return. They even didn’t give us water to drink. It was so hot that day and I was to carry myself back fuming with what’s-happening-question.
I showed the number from where I got the call but the person said that we don’t know who made the call–he said that they make calls to hundreds of applicants so don’t really know what happened. This was a terrible shock to me. I must say that I was not too impressed with this dealing.
