4,297 teacher seats are reportedly lying vacant in Indian central educational institutions Source: Bluediamondgallery
Around 4,297 teacher seats are reported to be lying vacant in Indian central educational institutions. All these seats fall under the reserved category. The Rajya Sabha has informed the Union Education Ministry in writing that the positions were empty even after conducting the recruitment procedure and announcement of the not-found-suitable list.
Apparently the seats lying vacant are for the positions of professor, assistant professor and associate professor. As per the official numbers around 988 seats that are vacant are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST), 576 for the Scheduled Castes and nearly 1761 for other backward classes. The records also state that 628 seats are also available for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and around 344 for Persons with Disabilities (PwD).
The queries related to these empty seats and measures to handle the issue were put forward by the MP AA Rahim. As per the ministry, since August 2021, 4,807 positions have been advertised, and the screening procedure for the same is still underway. Only 375 of those posts have been filled so far, informed the education ministry.
The breakup position-wise for these vacancies in the reserved categories are: 1,624 seats for associate professors, around 1,793 for assistant professors, and the remaining for professors.
As per the official records, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and the University of Hyderabad are amongst the top institutions to announce that the maximum number of candidates were not suitable for the posts.
“It is also a ridiculous assertion that in the present situation where there is massive unemployment the top central universities are unable to find anyone suitable. The government must immediately correct this violation of reservation rights and fill all the vacancies in teaching posts in the central universities,” said Rahim.
The Central Educational Institutions Act, 2019 lays down the details of reservations in the teachers cadre in the country. The Act makes provisions for candidates coming from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, socially and educationally backward classes, and economically weaker sections. As per the act, no reserved seat can be de-reserved and filled by a general candidate.