Indore: Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) is going to hire teachers on contract to fill up 150 posts lying vacant in different departments. Summing up the crisis of teaching staff, vice-chancellor Dr Narendra Dhakad said on Tuesday, “There is a dearth of teaching staff on UTD campus. We need to fill vacancies but our resources do not allow it. To overcome the crisis, we have decided to hire teachers on contract against regular posts as spending on such appointments is comparatively less.”
It will serve two purposes. The varsity will get teachers and also save around Rs 10 crore annually. The varsity would have entailed this expenditure on appointing regular staff. Explaining the mathematics behind the move, the VC said, “On an average the varsity pays Rs 90,000 per month to a newly-appointed regular teaching staff whereas it gets a contractual teacher on a consolidated salary of Rs 35,000. That means we save Rs 55,000 per month if we appoint a contractual teacher against a regular post.”
Appointment of 150 contractual teachers on regular posts would save Rs 82.5 lakh per month or Rs 10 crore per year. Currently, the university spends Rs 71 crore on salary of teaching staff. With contractual appointments, the expenditure would increase by only Rs 6.3 crore. The university will have to pay Rs 16.3 crore if it appoints regular staff.
DAVV evading appointments for many years
DAVV has been evading appointments of teaching staff for the last several years. Process to fill vacancies was initiated in 2009. It was deferred after a complaint regarding irregularities was lodged with the Raj Bhawan. In 2013, ahead of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) peer team’s visit to the varsity, vacant posts were advertised and applications invited. After NAAC awarded Grade ‘A’ accreditation to DAVV, the appointment process was put into a cold storage on the pretext of financial problems.
In 2015, the DAVV again geared up to fill the vacancies. However, eight self-financing departments/institutes requested varsity authorities not to appoint regular teachers on their campuses citing financial constraints. The request sounded death knell for the appointment process.
Govt builds up pressure on DAVV to fill vacancies
After Department of Higher Education (DHE) built up pressure, the university agreed to fill teaching posts lying vacant on UTD campus but sought increase in block grant. The university gets Rs 6.5 crore block grant annually. It sought 10-fold increase. Though its request is yet to be accepted, the DHE has been exerting pressure on varsity to fill the vacancies.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has also asked universities, including DAVV, to make sure that vacancies of teachers do not exceed 10% of the sanctioned strength at any point of time. Following these directives, the DAVV decided to fill vacancies.
No regular faculty at three UTDs
Three university teaching departments have no regular faculty members. These departments are School of Commerce, School of Social Sciences and School of Languages. These departments are being run solely by teachers on contract and guest lectures. During its visit, the peer team of NAAC had pointed out this shortcoming and was assured by DAVV authorities that regular teaching staff would be appointed in these departments within a year. The assurance is yet to be fulfilled.
Contractual teachers’ salary hiked
Contractual teachers would get a salary of RS 35,000 per month instead of Rs 21,600 which they have been getting till date. “Coordination committee has approved a proposal to increase salary of contractual teachers by nearly Rs 14,000 per month,” said Prof VB Gupta. He said that they would soon release an advertisement for filling vacancies with contractual teachers wherein new pay scale will be mentioned. He advocated further increase salary of contractual teachers.