Colleges to see 10-15% surplus teachers as there are no rules to gauge workload

Under the previous system, for example, one language teacher was assigned to teach every 25 students per division. With the new system of electives, student enrollment is scattered across different subjects, and the strength in each subject has dropped

MUMBAI: Colleges across the city are facing a growing crisis of surplus teaching staff, with nearly 10 to 15% of teachers likely to be marked as ‘surplus’ due to the lack of new government guidelines for calculating teaching workload under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Teachers who are declared surplus run the risk of not being able to teach in their respective college and being sent to a different college that has a shortfall. They could otherwise go without spending a single day in class in their college, but paid their monthly remuneration. In the long term, the posts could also be dissolved.

Colleges to see 10-15% surplus teachers as there are no rules to gauge workload

The confusion has created serious concern among principals and teachers, who fear that the ongoing scrutiny of faculty positions might lead to job insecurity for hundreds of teachers in aided colleges.

According to sources, the Department of Higher Education currently has no approved format or system to sanction teaching posts under the revised NEP structure. The academic framework introduced through NEP has changed the way courses are divided and taught, but the state government is still using the old workload norms to verify teaching positions. Colleges say that if this scrutiny is done based on outdated rules, around 15 to 20% of their teachers may be declared surplus.

“We are already in the third year of NEP implementation. The structure of courses has changed completely—students now study major, minor, and open elective subjects. This means the number of students enrolled in each subject has reduced compared to earlier years,” said a principal from a Mumbai college. “If the government applies the old formula for workload calculation, teachers of subjects like Sanskrit, Psychology, and Political Science will be marked as surplus, even though the overall student strength has not gone down.”

Under the previous system, for example, one language teacher was assigned to teach every 25 students per division. With the new system of electives, student enrollment is scattered across different subjects, and the strength in each subject has dropped. A senior professor explained, “Earlier, our college had around 100 students in Sanskrit, but now there are barely 40. That doesn’t mean the subject has lost importance—it just reflects the diversity of course choices under NEP.”

The government had formed a committee almost 18 months ago to revise the formula for calculating teachers’ workload under NEP. However, the committee has yet to submit its report. Meanwhile, colleges are being audited based on the old pattern, which many principals call “unfair and unrealistic.”

A principal from a leading college said, “We are already facing a shortage of teaching staff. To manage the workload, we are hiring teachers on a clock-hour basis. If this surplus situation continues, we will lose many good teachers, and it will directly affect the quality of education.”

Teacher representative Kushal Mude said that the issue is linked to a much deeper problem of unfilled vacancies. “As of 2017, there were 31,185 sanctioned posts in all aided colleges of 10 non-agricultural universities in Maharashtra. But as per data revealed under RTI on December 31, 2024, as many as 11,918 posts are still vacant. This shortage has badly affected the state’s NIRF ranking because the faculty-student ratio has fallen drastically,” he said.

The higher education department had announced a 100-day plan to fill 50% of the vacant posts, but the process has been delayed by bureaucratic hurdles, Mude said. “Now the finance department is asking for additional data on student strength and batch size, which is only delaying recruitment further.” He urged the government to implement ‘Mission Mode’ recruitment, an accelerated and time-bound campaign, within 100 days, and issue a clear workload formula as per NEP guidelines. “The batch size for science streams is clearly defined as 15, 12, and 12 for the three years of BSc. The student strength is similar to 2017, so there is no reason to delay recruitment. The government must act immediately to protect teachers and ensure stability in higher education,” he said.

Responding to the issue, a senior official from the higher education department said, “We are doing this activity to get clarity on the position and not make anyone surplus. We are planning to fill the vacant positions soon. For that, we are collecting data, and around 90% of the colleges across the state have submitted their data to us.”