NET gain for teachers

THE University Grants Commission on Tuesday announced relaxation of rules for appointment of teachers in higher education institutions. But it was not clear from when the new rules would become applicable.

Published on: May 17, 2006, 12:59:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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THE University Grants Commission on Tuesday announced relaxation of rules for appointment of teachers in higher education institutions. But it was not clear from when the new rules would become applicable.

The UGC has decided that Ph.D holders will not require National Eligibility Test (NET) qualification for appointment in PG educational institutes. Also, M.Phil holders be exempted from NET criteria for appointment as lecturers for undergraduate courses. Only those who have done their masters will have to clear NET if they want a teaching job in undergraduate courses.

UGC chairperson professor S.K. Thorat said the Commission had accepted the recommendations of the Balachandra Mungerkar Committee, constituted to review the NET examination. “The HRD Ministry recommended the changes and we approved it. We will be able to say more only when a detailed report on NET examination is submitted,” Prof Thorat said.

Mungerkar had submitted his preliminary report in March to the ministry with just two recommendations, which were forwarded to UGC for necessary action. Repeated attempts to seek logic for exemption from the country’s only screening test for teaching posts failed as Prof Thorat refused to elaborate. “Let’s wait for the final report,” he said.

Though the announcement came, no one knows from when the changes will be enforced. “I can’t tell you at this moment,” Prof Thorat said.

The Commission also announced six new scholarships — three each in sciences and humanities and social sciences. There will be 1,500 junior research fellowships in each in the two streams.

It has also decided that NET will not be an eligibility requirement any more. “We will announce the criteria soon,” Thorat said.

Furthermore, there will be 500 post-doctoral fellowships and 100 scholarships for research scientists in both the streams. Add to that financial support programmes for academic associations in science and humanities to organise academic conferences on various issues related to higher education.

Prof Thorat also said the Commission had taken steps to improve the financial accountability of universities and colleges taking funds from the it.

Civil services exam: Retest in one subject
Civil service aspirants who opted for public administration in the preliminary exams last Sunday will have to re-appear in the optional paper on May 18. In a move aimed at maintaining the integrity of its examinations as well as its own credibility, the UPSC on Tuesday announced cancellation of the civil services preliminary exam for the optional subject “Public Administration”.

The decision was taken after a “discrepancy” was reported in the number of question papers received at an exam centre.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
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.Read More

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