To expedite and overcome the hurdle in developing world class institutions and deteriorating levels of higher education, the Consultative Committee on Human Resource Development has recommended immediate filling up of vacant posts in IIT, NIT and at 40 central universities.
The Consultative Committee relating to Human Resource Development (HRD) comprising of Union HRD ministers and 28 MPs which met on December 29 also expressed concern over increasing gap between education and employability and the quality of students coming from colleges and suggested government take corrective steps.
A senior HRD ministry official said that the ministry would study and make an assessment of the Committee’s recommendations and work it out accordingly.
Much to the dismay of Narendra Modi’s government vision at creating world class institutions, close to half of the faculty positions are lying vacant at premier engineering institutions like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institute of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
Out of the sanctioned 5,073 faculty positions in IITs, 2,671 are vacant. At NITs, at least 3,183 posts are vacant out of the 5,428 faculty positions. Similarly, at IIM, 212 posts are vacant of the 703 sanctioned strength.
Ironically, universities and colleges including private institutions have increasingly been employing faculty on contract, which is also one of the reasons being attributed to deteriorating levels of education standards at the higher educational institutions.
Of the total sanctioned posts of 17,006 teachers in 40 Central Universities — which is under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) — 6080 teaching posts (1308 professors, 2,230 associate professors, 2542 assistant professors) are lying vacant.
Similarly, at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), against the sanctioned teaching posts of 454, 176 posts (38 professors, 51 associate professors, and 87 assistant professors) are lying vacant.
As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2015-16, the number of students and teachers in the institutions of higher education in the country during the academic year 2015-16 were 3.46 crore and 15.19 lakh respectively. There are 799 universities in the country of which 386 universities came into existence since 2001.
As per the QS World University Rankings 2016-17, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (152) and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (185) are among the top 200 Universities in the world. These universities have featured in the top 200 world universities in the QS World Universities Rankings for the academic year 2015-16 and 2016-17.
The Consultative Committee relating to HRD has also suggested revamping the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) which was launched by the Centre in September 2015 and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) that are aimed at improving the quality and standards in the Central Universities.
[Source:-The New Indian Express]