Research not mandatory for college teachers’ promotions, focus on community activities: Javadekar

HRD minister Prakash Javadekar has said the mandatory clause of research for college teachers to get their promotions will be done away with

New Delhi College teachers will no longer be mandated to conduct research to be eligible for promotions.They, however, have to be engaged more in community activities with students.

College teachers are currently also required to do research activity to get their promotions, just like university professors. (Hindustan Times/For representation only)

This announcement was made by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday at a two-day national conference on higher education perspective in India.

“We are going to do away with the mandatory clause of research for college teachers to get their promotions. An official announcement in this regard will follow soon.

“Instead of that, I want teachers to be engaged in student activity. We will make one community activity or student activity mandatory and teachers will be given their scores on basis of that,” Javadekar said.

Making changes in the Academic Performance Index (API), a criterion on which teachers get their promotions, the HRD ministry is working on a plan to make research optional for college teachers.

“Currently college teachers are also required to do research activity to get their promotions, just like university professors. But we must understand that both of them belong to completely different category of teachers.

“A college teacher should be mainly engaged in teaching. When we made research compulsory, research stopped completely. Conducting research just for the sake (of it) is taking down the quality of research,” Javadekar said.

University teachers who are supposed to teach the post graduate students or guide M Phil and PhD scholars will be required to engage in research, he said.