BENGALURU: Engineering colleges across the nation have been told not to downsize teachers, citing the new teacher-student ratio that has been introduced.
Several teachers of various engineering colleges across the nation had complained about colleges asking them to leave by saying that there is no workload as per the revised teacher-student ratio.
As a result, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has directed colleges not to remove teachers by showing the revised teacher-student ratio as a reason.
Recently, AICTE has revised the teacher-student ratio from 1:15 to 1:20 which made colleges sack teachers saying they are in excess. Now, in a public notice, AICTE warned colleges not to remove teachers unless they resign on their own.
Speaking about it, a principal of an engineering college based in Bengaluru said, “We have received directions from AICTE not to remove faculties based on revision of teacher-student ratio. They have to retire or resign on their own.”
“It will be a benefit for the colleges which recruit teachers freshly, but for those that already have as per the previous student-teacher ratio are in a fix as to what to do with the rest of the faculties. It is also a matter of financial constraints for the colleges,” said another principal.
However, an official of AICTE said that the institutions are not allowed to downsize the faculties just by citing the revised teacher-student ratio.
“This notice has been issued following the complaints from teachers across the nation about colleges asking them to leave,” he said.
Prof Jagannath Reddy, registrar of VTU, said, “There is no intention behind this, this is just a revision of teacher-student ratio which all the institutions have to maintain from now on. The notice clearly mentions not to remove teachers who are on the roll presently and can be removed only if they choose to resign.”