Over 13,000 teaching posts vacant in central institutions: Education Ministry

NEW DELHI: More than 13,000 teachers positions are lying vacant in the central educational institutions, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed Lok Sabha on the first day of the 2021 winter session of Parliament. As many as 13,701 faculty posts, unreserved as well as those reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Economically Weaker Sections, are vacant.

Earlier, Pradhan had informed that 47.57% of teaching posts for reserved categories in centrally-run educational institutions were lying vacant in the previous session of parliament. In central universities, only 7,839 posts out of the 16,649 posts for reserved categories were filled. The ministry, however, has given only a cumulative number of vacancies this time which includes vacancies under the unreserved category as well.

As per the government data, in the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), 52.53% of reserved posts were lying vacant, with only 476 out of 906 reserved posts filled. The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) had 43.62% vacant posts. Only 106 posts out of the 243 posts for reserved categories were filled. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has 63.42% reserved posts vacant. Only 352 posts were filled out of the 555 reserved posts.

IIT, IIM: Special recruitment drive

In September, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT (Banaras Hindu University), and IIT Ropar had begun a “special recruitment drive'' to fill posts reserved for candidates. These institutes are required to implement a reservation of 27% in faculty positions for candidates from OBC category, 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST candidates.

Other centrally-funded institutions like the Central University of Rajasthan (CURAJ), Indian Institute of Science Education Research (IISER) Kolkata, IIM Ranchi, and IIM Jammu have also started a special recruitment drive.

This recruitment process began after the education ministry in August had directed all institutes such as IITs, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) , National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and central universities to fill the vacancy before Teachers’ day 2022. To keep a check, the ministry has sought a monthly report on the actions taken to fill the vacancies.

In line with the ministry's direction, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is also keeping tabs on the recruitment process. On November 29, the higher education regulator asked universities and their affiliated colleges to upload the details of all the vacant teaching posts, along with the reservations and advertisement details are uploaded on the University Activity Monitoring Portal. The universities are required to submit the data on or before December 31, 2021.

Clarification: An earlier version of the copy said there are 13,000 vacant reserved posts which is not the case. This number represents both reserved and unreserved posts.