In a bid to fill the huge vacancies of faculty in higher education institutes, education secretary Sudeep Banerjee has asked the states to re-employ retired teachers till the age of 65 and have an alternative scheme for employment of retired teachers.
In a letter to all chief secretaries of all states, Banerjee has asked that the vacant posts of teachers be filled ‘expeditiously’ before the start of the new academic year. He also observed that because of the absence of regular teachers, good universities and colleges are ‘irreversibly sliding back to mediocrity and worse’. “Contract teachers and low paid and ad-hoc teachers step in to perform the role of teachers in colleges and universities, will impact quality adversely,” he stated.
Expressing concern, Banerjee said, that the UGC and the HRD ministry are upset over the shortage of teachers. A meeting of state education secretaries would soon be help to review the progress and chalk out a strategy to deal with the situation. The UGC has been asked to formulate a paper on ways to curb teacher shortage in institutes of higher education.