Bhubaneswar, Sept. 7: Dearth of teachers and unavailability of subject combinations have affected the introduction of the choice-based credit system in Plus Three colleges of the state.

In the absence of the required number of teachers, it will be difficult to teach the subject combinations introduced by the University Grants Commission (UGC), said academics from 200 colleges who had gathered at Utkal University for the "Principals' Meet" here today.

The participants aired their grievances and spoke about the hurdles they are facing in implementing the system from the new academic session of 2016-17.

About 230 degree colleges affiliated to Utkal University have shifted to the choice-based credit system this month. Of these, around 38 are government-run while the rest are aided, non-aided and block grant colleges. With 40 per cent of teachers' posts lying vacant at these colleges, the principals feared that it would badly affect the smooth transition to the new academic system.

"The biggest crisis is the lack of teachers for regular subjects and skill-based subjects being offered under the system," said Subhendu Jena, a principal who was attending the conference.

There is an acute teacher shortage in subjects such as Hindi, alternative English and environmental science, which have been made compulsory subjects under the new system.

The university authorities today directed the principals to allow subject combinations according to the available teachers.

"The new system was introduced to provide scope to students to choose different subjects. It is extremely unfortunate that we have to force them to choose only the available combinations," said another principal, who did not want to be named. The Choice Based Credit System was implemented on an experimental basis at 16 autonomous colleges under the university last year after the UGC threatened to stop grants if it was not implemented by the 2015-16 session.

Authorities said the situation at these 16 autonomous colleges was comparatively better as they have the option to appoint contractual teachers.

Vice-chancellor of Utkal University Ashok Das reiterated that it is mandatory for all the colleges to shift to the new semester-based credit system now if they wanted UGC grants.