GUWAHATI: Following a recent notification from the state higher education department that banned the practice of recruiting teacher and non-teaching staff on part-time and contractual basis, approximately 300 government-aided colleges in Assam are staring at a massive faculty shortage. This will also leave several people with no jobs and cause an acute faculty crisis across these colleges.
Few new positions have been created in government-aided or provincialised colleges of Assam since 1992 and the process as of yet has been to employ teachers and non-teaching staff against non-sanctioned posts on a part-time and contractual basis. Thus, the banning of this practice has put these colleges as well as the teachers in a fix.
According to the memorandum, "no provincialized college shall henceforth engage any person as teaching and non-teaching staff where no sanctioned posts exist for the purpose."
The Assam government has asked for a compliance report in this matter from college principals in April and has also cautioned all members of governing bodies of colleges, including principals that they will be held responsible for any violation in this regard.
Following this, the Assam College Teachers’ Association (ACTA) has vehemently protested the move and said that it would have ‘disastrous’ consequences.
In a memorandum, the ACTA said that "since a large number of posts are still lying vacant in most of the colleges, no college will be in a position to run normal classes and other related administrative and academic activities as per their respective schedules. Moreover, with the imminent introduction of the choice-based credit system (CBCS) at the undergraduate level, the existing posts will fall far short of the prescribed teacher-student ratio." They are currently seeking chief minister Sonowal’s intervention in the matter.
Following this news, the apex teachers’ association has urged the chief minister to take immediate steps to put the memorandum on hold until all vacant sanctioned posts are filled up and additional posts as per requirements are created.