BHUBANESWAR: In view of the ongoing faculty crisis in higher educational institutions, the State government on Friday asked principals of general degree colleges to engage guest faculty members for next two academic sessions of 2022-23 and 2023-24. The Higher Education department will give preference to retired government teachers with good service record in the same college.
In a directive to the principals, Higher Education Secretary Saswat Mishra said the maximum number of guest faculty to be engaged in a subject shall not be more than the existing vacancies. Besides, for subjects having student enrolment but without any sanctioned teaching post, guest faculty will be engaged in the teacher-pupil ratio of 1:25 for under-graduate courses and 1:15 for post-graduate courses.
One extra guest faculty member is permissible in the subject being taught by the principal of the college. Due to their administrative work, principals usually fail to take classes in their subjects. There are 1,025 degree colleges - both public and private - in the State and a majority of these do not even have regular principals. Around 60 per cent of the colleges do not have the required number of teachers, sources in the department said.
While faculty recruitment to degree colleges was put on hold in 2020, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) had last year advertised for appointment of 606 faculty members in various subjects to government degree colleges in the State. The recruitment is under progress. Visiting faculty in degree colleges are paid Rs 400 to Rs 500 per class.