The Union government has announced the appointment of 1,225 “assistant professors on contract.” This marks the beginning a new system of hiring contract teachers at government higher education institutions.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
- The move has three key characteristics—a quick job creation, a shorter selection process and a limited period of employment guarantee, unlike the existing “job for life”.
- These appointments have been made at 53 engineering colleges across 11 states and Union territories.
- They will be given a consolidated salary of Rs70,000 and after three years of appointment
- They will be free to choose their own career path. Most of these appointments have taken place in poorer states such as Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
- The entire process was completed in two months in which 293 fresh PhDs and 932 M.Tech graduates from top schools were appointed. The ministry said they have done this under a scheme called technical education quality improvement programme.
AIM BEHIND THE MOVE
India’s 864 universities and 51,000 colleges are facing a shortage of teaching staff with a student-teacher ratio of 22:1
Javadekar said the step was taken after a request from the states. To ensure quality, the ministry reached out to top technical and research schools, including IITs, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) asking M.Tech and Phd graduates to apply.
WHAT NEXT ON CARDS
Asked if the ministry is going to roll out contractual appointments in other streams like social sciences where there is a huge appointment backlog, the minister did not give a clear answer, saying it is a “good suggestion for action”.
