Indore: The much-awaited assistant professor exam, which is going to be held after a gap of 25 years in the state, would finally start on Monday. “All preparations for the exam have been done,” said Dinesh Jain, deputy secretary, Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) that is going to conduct the exam.
The exam would be held online in a 15-day window from June 18 to July 2.As many as 24 centres in the state has been setup up. Five of them have been setup in Indore – three at Islamia Karimia College and two at Maharaja Ranjit Singh College.
“The exam is going to be held at four cities– Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur,” Jain said. Through this exam, the MPPSC said, nearly 3,500 seats in government colleges across the state would be filled. “The exam will be held for as many as 41 subjects. Nearly 30,000 candidates have registered for it,” said Jain.
The assistant professor exam was long awaited. “Last assistant professor exam was held in 1993. Since, government job aspirants have been waiting for the exam,” said Ramesh Mangal, a senior academic and retired principal. For last four years, the MPPSC has been trying to hold assistant professor exam but due to some or other issues it gets cancelled or postponed.
After a wait of nearly two decades, the MPPSC had invited applications for filling about 1,650 posts of assistant professors in 2014, but the recruitment process was cancelled in September in 2015 following some eligibility related issues. The process was resumed with the Department of Higher Education adding more teaching posts to the vacant posts taking the number of vacancies to 2,371 in government colleges.
These vacancies were again advertised in 2016 by the MPPSC and exam was fixed on August 22. But, the eligibility criteria decided for the post, made thousands of PhD holders, who obtained their degrees before July 2009, ineligible which led to protests forcing the state government to cancel the exam again. To resolve the issue, the MPPSC held State Eligibility Test (SET) last year so that the PhD holders, who were rendered ineligible for the assistant professor’s posts, could become eligible on the basis of SET.
When the appointment process started again, the controversy erupted over discrimination of age criteria set differently for the candidates from the state and outside. Following the orders of the court, the appointment process was postponed. The age issue was addressed about three months ago and now finally the exam dates are out. “There is no problem with the exam now. It will be held on the scheduled dates without any hassle,” the MPPSC deputy secretary said adding that they have planned to fill vacancies in the colleges by August end.