Representational Image. Image Courtesy: PTI
New Delhi: Close to 33% posts for professors, associate professors and assistant professors are lying vacant in 45 Central universities, raising grave concerns about the state of higher education in the country.
A total of 6,180 posts for professors, associate professors and assistant professors are lying vacant in Central universities out of the total sanctioned posts of 18, 956, as on December 1, 2022, according to the government.
Of these, 1,529 vacant posts are for professors out of 2,553 total sanctioned strength, 2,304 for associate professors out of the total sanctioned 5,110 posts and 2,347 for assistant professors out of the total 11,293 sanctioned posts, Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question.
On a question about the backlog in filling up vacancies for SCs, the minister said that of the total sanctioned posts of 2,284 for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in all three categories of professors, associate professors and assistant professor, there are 908 unfilled vacancies, while out of 1,142 sanctioned posts for Scheduled Tribes, 544 posts are lying vacant in central universities.
In the Other backward Classes (OBC) segment, the total number of sanctioned posts in all three categories is 3,451, out of which 1,559 are still lying unfilled.
In IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) , 4,502 faculty posts are lying vacant out of a sanctioned strength of 11,170 while in IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management), 493 teaching posts are lying vacant out of a sanctioned strength of 1,556.
Pradhan informed the House that his ministry had directed all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to fill up the vacancies in a Mission Mode.
“In addition to writing to all the HEIs to fill up the vacancies in a Mission Mode, the Ministry has set up a monthly monitoring mechanism. The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers Cadre) Act, 2019 has been notified on 09.07.2019 to ensure preparation of the rosters by considering the university as a Unit,” he said in his reply.
On reservations, he said: “According to the Act, reservation is applicable in all the Higher Educational Institutions except the institutions listed in the schedule and few other exceptions as stated in the Act. Further, as per this Act, reservation is provided for all posts in direct recruitment in Teacher’s cadre in Central Educational Institutions. After enactment of this Act, no reserved post is to be de-reserved.”
Courtesy: Newsclick