Concerned over the rise in vacancies of college and varsity teachers, the government today said it has asked all universities in the country to fill them up within three years.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar informed the Rajya Sabha that while 20.1 per cent posts of teachers were lying vacant in the rural areas, 29.5 per cent were vacant in urban areas, as per the All India Survey on higher education (AISHE) for 2016-17.
Citing figures, he said there were a total of 1,37,298 posts of teachers lying vacant in rural areas and another 1,68,719 were vacant in urban areas, totalling 3,06,017 vacancies.
Javadekar said during 2016-17, as many as 19,732 posts of teachers were vacant in rural colleges alone and another 15,108 posts of teachers in urban colleges.
"We have asked all universities to fill up all vacancies of teachers under them within three years," he told members during Question Hour.
Replying to supplementaries, he said the government has made it clear that the reservation of SCs/STs and OBCs will not be altered as "we have filed an SLP (special leave petition) in court" in this regard, after a High Court order halted the filling of such vacancies.
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In Delhi university too, a special meeting has been convened and the varsity told to make up a plan for filling up all such vacancies for reserved classes, he said.
"I am assuring the House that no SC/ST/OBC person will be denied a job as per their quota," he told the members, saying the courts have quashed the government's provisions and "that is why this imbalance".
"That is why we have filed the SLP," he said.
In reply to another question, the minister said the government has conducted a national assessment survey of 22 lakh students in classes III, V and VIII and another 15 lakh students of class X to ascertain the changes to be brought in the new education policy.
"On the basis of inputs received from students and findings of this survey, which is the largest in the world, we will bring improvement in education system.
Javadekar said education was a concurrent issue and "we have asked states also not to deploy teachers for purposes other than teaching".
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