Maharashtra: 11,000 faculty posts lie vacant; Officials say governors, finance division at fault

The previous and current Maharashtra governors, as well as the finance and planning departments, are facing criticism for the delay in approving recruitment to around 11,000 vacant posts in universities and colleges, the bulk of which haven't been filled for over a decade.

Sources from Mantralay have faulted the former governor and the vice president of the country CP Radhakrishnan for his insistence on overhauling the teacher hiring process by handing it over to an independent commission, having an elaborate scoring system in place to evaluate applicants and reducing the weightage for interview.

They also put the current governor and ex-officio chancellor of state varsities Acharya Devrat in the dock for his alleged lack of interest in pushing through the recruitment drive.

The government officials said that, despite chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s intervention, the state finance and planning departments have been “dilly dallying” on filling up even a fraction of vacancies - 659 posts at university departments - which would be advertised in the first phase of hirings.

The issue of teacher shortage has once again come to the fore after the latest edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) saw the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) , the top state varsity in the list, dropping several places primarily due to poor student-faculty ratio. Except for SPPU and the University of Mumbai (MU) none of the 12 non-agriculture universities figure in the annual rankings.

Of an estimated 31,000 government-supported faculty posts at around 1,100 aided colleges and universities, around one third are unfilled. Of these, over 5,000 became vacant due to retirements between 2017 and 2023.

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Maharashtra governors’ role in education

The governors’ role has increasingly come under scrutiny for their intervention in the affairs of the opposition-ruled states around the country. Interestingly, in this instance, the ruling coalition in Maharashtra is led by BJP. The finance and planning ministries, though, are headed by coalition partners Ajit Pawar of Nationalist Congress Party and Eknath Shinde of Shiv Sena.

While the universities had invited applications for 700-odd posts following a green light from the finance department, Radhakrishnan had stopped the process as he sought more transparency and curb on alleged corruption in the recruitment.

According to officials, the then governor had first proposed that the teachers be appointed through the Maharashtra Public Services Commission (MPSC) and then advocated for an independent commission after the government officials pointed at delays in the existing recruitment by MPSC.

However, the proposal was shot down by the University Grants Commission (UGC), which said that the recruitments should be carried out by the universities themselves as they have the requisite expertise to judge the aspirants.

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Teacher Recruitment: New norms, workload hurdle

The issue was ultimately resolved when the state government recently adopted the Raj Bhavan’s suggestions and issued a new set of norms for university teacher recruitment . The weightage for the interview component was reduced from 40% to 25% – a compromise, as the governor's office had earlier demanded 20%. Several stringent parameters have been put in place, including higher points for graduates of institutes of national importance.

But, according to the sources, the finance department is yet give its nod as has asked for more details about the workload. “The workload can only be calculated after three years [after the first National Education Policy-aligned batch graduates]. Hence, the CM proposed to use the student enrollment figures to arrive at the requisite number of teachers,” explained an official.

The officials also worry that the new norms may prevent many of the aspirants from applying to universities.

“We have decided to first see how the university recruitment process progresses, and will accordingly decide [about other hirings or changing the norms]," said the official, requesting anonymity.

The officials also claimed that they have been struggling to get Devrat involved in the issue. However, on Tuesday, the governor conducted a meeting with university vice-chancellors. The varsities have been asked to re-issue ads for teacher appointments, to accommodate new candidates. The officials hope that the process will start in two weeks.

Replacing only retirees

An official said that the finance department has so far only agreed to replace the 5,000 retirees, that too after much persuasion.

“They saw the retirements as the expenses off the account book. They weren't keen on re-adding them,” said a top official.

The officials also acknowledged that the state’s poll-time ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme, under which poor women in the state are given Rs 1,500 monthly allowance, has taken a toll on the state's finances. The state spends around Rs 36,000 crore per annum on the cash transfer scheme.

“Ladki Bahin, along with the reduction in the state’s Goods and Services Taxes (GST) receipts and drying up of financial resources has strained the exchequer,” said the top official, adding, “If the situation persists, our universities will slip even further.”