MANGALORE: The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has expressed concern over the absence of regular teachers in universities and colleges and has asked State governments to expedite the filling of vacant teacher posts.

In a letter dated April 18, 2006 to chief secretaries of States, a copy of which is available with The Hindu , Union Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee notes, "In the absence of regular teachers, good universities and colleges are irreversibly sliding back to mediocrity and worse. It is imperative, therefore, that all attempts are made to fill the posts of teachers in universities and colleges in an expeditious manner. It would be useful to start this campaign before the next academic session... "

According to Mr. Banerjee, this has upset the Ministry, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and academics. "One extreme way of tackling this problem would be to stop further assistance to these universities and colleges which do not have regular teachers as per the norms. An even more drastic step would be that of derecognising such institutions. This is an avoidable situation, both because it would unnecessarily inconvenience students and cause dislocation of their studies," he says.

The UGC has suggested that superannuated teachers could be re-employed up to the age of 65 years. "This is an option that you could consider in the short term. Alternatively, an independent scheme could be developed to use the services of the retired teachers," he says.

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