Bhubaneswar: State Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo Thursday officially admitted in the Odisha Assembly that 53 per cent of the teaching posts in different state-run universities are lying vacant.
The minister submitted a written statement into this regard when an unstarred question was raised by Congress leader Narasingha Mishra. Mishra had asked the government regarding the number of vacancies of teaching staff in different universities and colleges in the state.
In response, Sahoo gave a written statement saying that Odisha has 10 state-run universities with a total of 1,426 sanctioned posts of professors, associate professors and assistant professors. However, out of these sanctioned posts, 762 posts (53 per cent) are lying vacant.
The minister’s response said that all is not good in Utkal University, the top-ranking state-run varsity. The university has 47 sanctioned posts of professors out of which 35 are vacant. It also has 76 sanctioned posts of associate professors out of which 44 seats are vacant. Similarly, varsity has 134 sanctioned posts for assistant professors but 47 posts are vacant.
The state of affairs is the same at Berhampur University, Sambalpur University, Ravenshaw University and others.
He further said that out of the 2,306 sanctioned posts in government degree colleges, 1,033 posts (44.8 per cent) are vacant. Documents furnished by the minister showed that in government degree colleges the maximum number of vacancies are in the English department (114 vacant posts), followed by History (87), Economics (86) and Chemistry (75).
At the same time, Sahoo said that in the non-government-aided colleges, 1,353 posts out of the sanctioned posts of 6,364 posts were lying vacant. Most vacancies are in the Odia department (224 vacant posts), followed by 159 vacancies in the English department.