Over half the faculty posts in India’s 47 universities are vacant. Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D Purandeshwari told Rajya Sabha on Monday that a survey conducted by the Pay Review Committee of the University Grants Commission had found that in the current academic session, of 16,579 sanctioned teaching posts, 8515 had not been filled. The 47 universities include central universities she said responding during Question Hour.
While 2,469 professor posts were sanctioned, 1,102 were lying vacant. Similarly, of the 4,506 sanctioned Readers' posts, appointments to 2,312 have not been made. In the category of lecturers, 5,101 slots were vacant of the 9,604 sanctioned posts, she said.
The scenario is bad in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University, where the vacant post of professors are 37 and 79 respectively.
In Delhi University, 120 Readers' posts are unoccupied. The figure is the highest in Aligarh Muslim University where 317 more lecturers are needed.
Central universities and state government have been advised from time to time to fill up the backlog vacancies, the minister said.
In response to another question on examination stress, the minister said that the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) was studying the adverse effects of the present examination system in schools to ascertain if it had any bearing on student suicides.
"We do realise children are under stress and strain (but) exams are not the lone cause of suicides," she said when asked about the 16,000 reported suicides by students between 2004 and 2006.
{{/usCountry}}"We do realise children are under stress and strain (but) exams are not the lone cause of suicides," she said when asked about the 16,000 reported suicides by students between 2004 and 2006.
{{/usCountry}}