800 teaching staff to be appointed in government colleges

Government colleges facing shortage of teachers are set for a relief as the State Government has decided to recruit 800 teaching staff within next three months. The decision was taken at a high level meeting presided by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here on Saturday.

Of 2,321 colleges in the State, 97 are Government, 783 aided, 550 block grant, 220 self-financing and 33 other departmental colleges. The remaining are unaided colleges.

Of 1,818 sanctioned posts in Government degree colleges,  612 are lying vacant while 279 are vacant in 1,334 junior colleges which have 1,023 sanctioned posts.

A workload study conducted by the Department of Higher Education earlier this year recommended that with 25 classes per lecturer in a week, 678 posts are required to be filled up.

The BJB Autonomous College, which is the most sought-after college in the State and seeks the highest cut-off marks for admission, is also reeling under acute shortage of teaching staff. Against the sanctioned strength of 90 teachers, the college is managed by half the strength. Similar is the situation in a number of reputed Government colleges including Rama Devi Women’s College and Sailabala Women’s College.

In many colleges, the number of faculty members drawing government salaries has come down to 55 per cent.

One of the oldest in the State, Gangadhar Meher (GM) College, Sambalpur is also reeling under large scale vacancies at a time when unitary university status is being sought for it. More than 100 teaching posts are lying vacant in the college, official sources said.

Although large number of principal posts in Government colleges were lying vacant, the problem was partially solved after necessary amendments in the Odisha Education Service (Senior Administrative Grade) recruitment rules. Six lead and 19 autonomous colleges have been running without a principal since 2001.

Sources said about 20 principal posts are still lying vacant.

The Higher Education Department has decided to recruit 272 junior lecturers in different disciplines for Government Junior Colleges. The Finance Department has given concurrence to the proposal of the Higher Education Department.

Efforts are being made to complete the process of recruitment by September, sources in the Department said. The State Government recently sanctioned 176 teacher posts for seven universities.