E-Paper
Proposal for teachers? retirement at 65 hailed
ALLAHABAD UNIVERSITY (AU) teachers? both serving and retired? as well as students have welcomed the Union Human Resource Development Ministry's proposal to raise the retirement age for Central university teachers from 62 years to 65.
ALLAHABAD UNIVERSITY (AU) teachers— both serving and retired— as well as students have welcomed the Union Human Resource Development Ministry's proposal to raise the retirement age for Central university teachers from 62 years to 65.
The proposal to consider retired varsity teachers under 70 years for re-employment too has found support among them as a way to tackle the acute shortage of qualified hands in institutions of higher education.
Though the MHRD proposal had been under consideration for some time now, it has gained urgency lately in the wake of the Government's decision to increase the number of seats in the institutions of higher education for reserving seats for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
The HRD Ministry is said to be hopeful of a positive response from all quarters since the options before the Government are limited this time, faced as it is with the task of increasing student intake by over 50 per cent within a year without affecting the education quality.
"MHRD and the UGC are right in mooting this proposal as it will fulfil the need of the large number of teachers required and also ensure that quality of teaching doesn't suffer.
By increasing the retirement age of serving teachers and re-employing fit and agile retired teachers, the acute shortage of teachers can be dealt with," said former Vice-Chancellor of AU Prof HR Singh.
Prof Singh said that proper modalities and governance would, however, be needed. Extending support to the move, Head of AU Economics Department Prof PN Mehrotra said: "The move is good to deal with the immediate and sudden need of a large number of quality teachers that simply do not exist. If the long experience and knowledge of a teacher can be used to educate youngsters, it is definitely no one's loss and society's gain. I don't believe that even the financial burden would be much." "With more institutions of higher education of IIT level being planned, the requirement of teachers is bound to go up and the MHRD's proposal seems to be catering to that all," he added.
Even the students seem to prefer being taught by experienced teachers.
"I will like to be taught by teachers having the experience and the knowledge. I think retired and experienced teachers are preferable in comparison to a person appointed on a contract or ad hoc basis," said Puja Dubey, a BA-III student of AU.
