Delhi University: 50% teaching posts vacant, delaying annual reports, accounts, says Parliament panel

NEW DELHI: Delhi University currently has 50.85 percent teaching positions and 68.81 percent non-teaching posts vacant, said a parliamentary committee report tabled in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Due to the shortage of staff, the university has been inconsistent with submitting audit reports within the stipulated time. According to the panel, DU has submitted the annual report and audit accounts before the ministry of education on time only once in the last 30 years.

“The committee observes that the ministry of education has fulfilled the requirement of laying together the annual report and audit accounts only once, which is the year 2011-12 during the last three decades,” said the Committee on Paper Laid on the Table through a statement. The university, since then, has not made any effective measures to submit accounts on time, the panel noted.

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On Monday, the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan had informed Parliament that more than 13,000 teaching positions are vacant in the central educational institutions. The University Grants Commission (UGC) also has asked the universities to expedite the recruitment of teachers and take necessary steps to fill up vacancies at the earliest. To keep a check on the progress, all universities are required to upload the details of all the vacant teaching posts on the University Activity Monitoring Portal by December 31.

DU teaching staff shortage

According to DU teachers, even if the student strength has significantly increased in the past, the student-teacher ratio remains askew.

“We think the vacancies are way more than what the government projects in its reports. Like last time, the education minister said only 58 ad hocs are working in DU when in fact there are around 5,000 ad hocs. The government increased the seats when they implemented the EWS [economically weaker section] reservation but they have not provided enough teachers required after this increment,” said said Rajesh Jha, DU teacher, a former member of the DU executive council.

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The education minister, in July, had informed the parliament that DU has employed 58 temporary teachers in 2021. Meanwhile, a total of 102 and 76 adhoc teachers were hired in DU in 2019 and 2020 respectively. However, the DU teachers say that over 60 percent of teachers working in DU colleges are ad hoc and temporary teachers are hired to fill vacancies instead of permanent teachers. “The university is in dire need of permanent teachers and it is necessary to absorb all the ad hoc teachers working currently in the university,” Jha added.

DU currently has 91 colleges and 86 departments with 16 faculties. “The committee is disheartened to note that the huge staff shortage in a prestigious university like Delhi University and exhorts the ministry to take all remedial steps to ensure that all existing vacancies are filled immediately and this state of affairs may not be allowed to continue,” the panel said.

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Highlighting the moderate increase in infrastructure at the university, the panel asked DU to implement an online proforma to digitally collect the information. “While compiling heterogeneous data is undeniably challenging, the problem is not insurmountable given the plethora of software available and advances in information technology,” the report said. The panel further criticised DU for not furnishing the audit report on time due to “delay in collection and compilation of information because of the complex structure of the university.”