The governor is not naming his nominees to committees set up to screen teachers for appointment to universities and that is coming in the way of filling vacant posts, a platform of teachers’ associations of state universities said on Friday.
The lack of adequate number of teachers, the platform said, is making implementation of the four-year undergraduate programme difficult.
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose is ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities. Calls, a WhatsApp message and an email from this newspaper to the chancellor failed to elicit a response.
The platform — “Save Universities, Save Education” — held a news conference at Jadavpur University on Friday evening and issued a statement saying recruitment of teachers in state universities had stopped.
At some universities more than 50 per cent of the sanctioned teaching posts are vacant, the statement said.
“We demand the appointment of teachers at the earliest and also appointment of chancellor’s nominee in expert committees for new recruitments and committees for the promotion of teachers under the CAS (career advancement scheme),” the statement said.
Parthapratim Ray, secretary of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association, who addressed the news conference, said the shortage of teachers would impede smooth implementation of the four-year undergraduate programme from this academic year.
The state government has introduced the four-year undergraduate programme replacing the three-year course, in compliance with a directive from the UGC.
“The teachers are a key component for running the new programme. At Jadavpur University, there are 630 teachers. The sanctioned strength is over 850. Our teacher recruitment has remained stalled since May 2022,” said Ray.
Sanatan Chattopadhyay, secretary of the Calcutta University Teachers’ Association, said that there are 168 teachers in humanities and library science at CU, against the sanctioned strength of 343.
“In science, technology and agriculture, the current faculty strength stands at 227, against the sanctioned strength of 450. The data collected from 53 departments shows the damage that the absence of teacher recruitment since 2021 has done to the university,” said Chattopadhyay.
“What is more concerning is that instead of focusing on recruitment of teachers, the chancellor is busy appointing a retired chief justice and a retired IPS officer as officiating VC in state universities, in contravention of established norms," he said, referring to the governor's decision on appointing officiating VCs of Rabindra Bharati and Aliah universities.
The statement issued by the platform said: “The current chancellor is destroying the basic academic structure and principle by illegally appointing former justice, ex-IPS officer as VCs and so on by violating UGC rules and regulations.”
Debabrata Das, secretary of the RBU teachers association, who was present at the news conference, said the university has only 124 teachers, against the sanctioned strength of 199.
When contacted by this newspaper, education minister Bratya Basu declined to comment.