Increasing demand of technical education would result in teachers’ shortage in Indian engineering colleges to almost double by 2011, reports Chetan Chauhan.
Increasing demand of technical education would result in teachers’ shortage in Indian engineering colleges to almost double by 2011, says a government committee.
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The engineering colleges will have 1.32 lakh less teachers if the government rule of one teacher for every 15-engineering student is applied, the P Rama Rao committee appointed by the Human Resource Development Ministry said. At the start of 2007-08, the shortage was about 72,000 teachers.
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The increase in faculty shortage is result of the growth of the technical education sector in India will witness in the next few years, the committee says. From 6.5 lakh government’s approved intake in 2997-08, the intake would jump to over 10 lakh students in the academic year 2010-11.
A ministry official said the committee has given a projection based on the present faculty shortage and anticipated student intake in the next five years. The government has already announced increase in intake of 54 per cent to implement 27 per cent OBC quota.
A senior professor at the National University Education Planning and Administration said, an electronic engineer with a simple degree earns double than what a PhD holder salary is in the Indian universities. "When teaching is such a poor paid profession then who will opt for it. Government should realise the competition teaching is facing from the corporate market," he said.
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The ministry official said, "The government is taking number of steps to prevent such a scenario. The University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education have been given special funds to encourage specialization in science and technical in the country". He added that already the retirement age for faculty has been increased to 65 years from 62.
Higher the specialization more would be the shortage, the Rao committee has said. By 2011, Indian universities would have 25,000 vacancies of PhD holders in comparison to 20,000 for those holding degree in masters. The reason for this was recently indicated by Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister CNR Rao, when he said, the number of students joining specialized education is falling drastically.
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The ministry official said, "The government is taking number of steps to prevent such a scenario. The University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education have been given special funds to encourage specialization in science and technical in the country". He added that already the retirement age for faculty has been increased to 65 years from 62.
Higher the specialization more would be the shortage, the Rao committee has said. By 2011, Indian universities would have 25,000 vacancies of PhD holders in comparison to 20,000 for those holding degree in masters. The reason for this was recently indicated by Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister CNR Rao, when he said, the number of students joining specialized education is falling drastically.
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Professor RA Yadav vice-chairperson of the council said, "We are taking several steps to encourage students to pursue masters and PhD in engineering streams".
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
