UGC has ‘no proposal’ to absorb ad-hoc teachers: Education Ministry

NEW DELHI: Despite this being a longstanding issue, there is “no proposal under consideration” in University Grants Commission (UGC) to absorb ad-hoc teachers of central universities and affiliated colleges as permanent staff, ministry of state for education Subhash Sarkar told Lok Sabha during the monsoon session of Parliament on Monday.

“However, the Ministry of Education and UGC from time to time has requested all the Central Universities to fill up the posts on a regular basis,'' Sarkar’s written reply said.

As many as 3,904 teachers are employed in central universities in temporary posts – 122 on ad-hoc basis, 1,820 on contract basis while 1,931 are working as guest faculty, according to data shared by the union education ministry with parliament. A total of 31 faculties have been re-employed at a time when more than 6,000 permanent teaching posts are vacant in central universities across the country.

Subhas Sarkar, union minister of state for education in a written reply to a question from Lok Sabha MP Dibyendu Adhikari informed that only two universities – Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and University of Delhi (DU) have ad-hoc faculties. While AMU has a maximum of 70 ad-hoc faculties, DU has 52 ad-hoc faculties. The data is likely to be on the university departments and unlikely to include ad hoc appointments in affiliated colleges where, according to Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) esmiates, around 4,500 ad-hoc teachers are employed.

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Delhi University ad-hoc teachers

The DUTA recently demonstrated outside the University Grants Commission (UGC) office in New Delhi demanding a one-time regulation for absorption of ad-hoc and temporary teachers in the university's departments and colleges.

According to the education ministry’s data, DU has the maximum guest teachers, – 248 guest faculties – followed by 150 in University of Allahabad and 129 in Manipur University, Imphal. DU also leads in universities with the maximum teachers appointed on contract-basis – 1,044. AMU is at a distant second with 159 and Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi at third with 120.

In its centenary year, DU has slipped by one spot to remain at 13th place in the university category of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF 2022). The seventh edition of NIRF was released by the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday in which five of DU constituent colleges made it to the list of top 10 Indian colleges with Miranda House topping the list. The DU vice-chancellor, Yogesh Singh, blamed the adverse student-teacher ratio at DU for the downslide.

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Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi which slipped to sixth position from third spot in university category of NIRF 2022, has re-employed maximum – eight – teachers, followed by Sikkim University, Gangtok has with seven teachers and Central University of Andhra Pradesh with six faculties.

Central Universities: 6,500 vacant posts

In reply to another question in parliament, the education ministry on Monday said that 6,549 teaching positions are vacant in central universities. Of these, 2,252 vacancies are unreserved; 1,761 are posts for Other Backward Classes (OBC); 988 for Scheduled Castes (SC); and 576 for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

DU has the maximum vacancies with 900 vacant teaching positions including 138 vacancies in SC category and 70 vacancies in ST category. University of Allahabad with 622 teaching vacancies, and AMU with 498 teaching vacancies, were the other central universities with most teacher vacancies after DU.

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Sarkar said the vacancies arise due to retirement, resignation and additional requirements on account of enhanced students’ strength.

“The Ministry of Education has requested all the Central Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) to fill up the vacancies in a Mission Mode within a period of one year starting from September 5, 2021. Since August 2021, 4,807 posts in Central Universities have been advertised for which the selection processes are on,” he said.