It was exactly a year ago when a lot of buzz was created after Delhi University advertised nearly 1,500 vacancies for the post of assistant professors in various colleges and across various departments. This online application process for recruitment started from May and went on till July. Thousands of job aspirants applied for these vacancies hoping that they would be selected as permanent faculties in University of Delhi and their standard of living would improve.
Just three months before this, which is in January-February 2017, Delhi University also advertised vacancies for assistant professors, associate professors and professors at the university level. For the post of assistant professors, a total of 378 vacancies were advertised, for associate professors, 92 vacancies were advertised for associate professors and 32 vacancies were advertised for the post of professor. Here also, the numbers of candidates applying were in thousands but relatively fewer than the number of candidates which applied for the posts in colleges.
The application for one post in one college cost Rs 500 for people in the unreserved and OBC (other backward classes) categories. Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Women and Persons with Disabilities were exempted from paying any application fee. But those who paid, usually did so in thousands because everyone wanted to appear in interviews of more colleges. For example, a candidate who is applying for the assistant professor’s post in political science would naturally want to appear in interviews of at least five colleges. The total amount paid by candidates as application fee must be reaching into crores of rupees. These people didn’t pay this much so that the system fails them.
In 2016, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar had said that his ministry would push for a recruitment drive in all major institutions and that all vacant positions should be filled by 2018. In March 2017, he said more than 9,000 ad hoc posts of teachers in Delhi University would be regularised within a year. Credit: PTI Files
As per reports, in December 2016, human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar had said that his ministry would push for a recruitment drive in all major institutions and that all vacant positions should be filled by 2018. Later, in March 2017, the minister said more than 9,000 ad hoc posts of teachers in Delhi University would be regularised within a year. All this big talk seems to be falling apart after a year has passed. Till now, even interviews for the said posts are yet to be taken. Barring the law faculty in DU where recruitment was done, in most of the colleges and departments, the recruitment hasn’t moved much.
In December, the university had asked various colleges to shortlist the candidates after screening the applications. Many of the departments did release the screening updates of shortlisted candidates, but the process which was moving slowly almost froze after the University Grants Commission (UGC) came out with a notification on March 7. “In the letter to all the central/state universities and those institutions receiving aid from public funds (except minority institutions), Dr Dev Swarup, joint secretary, UGC, directed them to prepare fresh rosters for the appointments of faculty members within one month”, DNA newspaper reported.
As per this new UGC formula, the reservation for SC/ST/OBC in the recruitment of all levels of teacher posts will be calculated by treating each department of the university/institution as a “unit”. This will lead to a very sharp decrease in the recruitment of reserved category candidates. This means that smaller departments with less number of posts could never have a reserved category candidate, especially SC, ST and Persons with Disabilities (whose representation is anyway abysmally low in most of the institutions).
The UGC directive came after a decision by Allahabad High Court and later upheld by the Supreme Court. Although, after a furore created by this UGC directive, the government filed a special petition seeking stay on Allahabad High Court judgement in the Supreme Court. Although, UGC is yet to remove this directive from its website. As per calculations, if the new UGC directive gets implemented, in many departments the number of seats SC and ST candidates might reduce by 60 to 80%.
Due to the nature of this directive, this move is seen as being anti-Dalit and minorities. When the posts were advertised last year, it was applauded as a move to end ad hocism in DU and start the absorption process of thousands of teachers who are working as ad hoc faculty for years now. At present, the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) is protesting against this new UGC directive and had announced boycotting to evaluate the answer sheets of students, as a counter measure.. However, this extreme move was later called off.
The jobs of thousands of ad hoc teachers are also threatened if the new UGC directive gets implemented. Rather than being absorbed in the system, these teachers could be shown the door by the university and college administrations. The new session in DU is about to start just a month from now and if this issues doesn’t get resolved, it will surely harm the smooth functioning of the university.
If teachers, who build the future of nation, are dissatisfied, how can one expect the country’s future to be better? If as a society, we continue to fail our teachers and their aspirants, there is not an iota of chance that this system will pass the students. To conclude, this issue of faculty recruitment doesn’t seem to resolve at present and in near future, while thousands of candidates who applied for these posts last year have almost lost the hope of being recruited this year. Maybe 2019 will bring some change….
Martand Jha is a freelance writer based in New Delhi.