53% teaching posts in Odisha’s state-run universities lie vacant

Universities and Colleges in Odisha are running with half of the sanctioned strength of teachers. The most affected subjects include Odia, English, economics, history and chemistry.

The matter came to light when the leader of the Congress legislature party, Narasingha Mishra, asked the government in the Assembly about the number of vacant teaching posts in universities and colleges in the state.

In a written reply to the question, state higher education minister Arun Sahoo on November 26 told the Odisha Assembly that 53 per cent of the teaching posts in different state-run universities were lying vacant.

Sahoo, in his reply, stated that Odisha has 10 state-run universities with a total of 1,426 sanctioned posts of professors, associate professors and assistant professors. However, 725 of these posts were lying vacant.

Utkal University, the top-ranking state-run university in Odisha, has 47 sanctioned posts of professors out but 35 of them are lying vacant. Forty-four of the 76 associate professor and 47 of the 134 sanctioned positions for assistant professor at the university are also lying vacant.

The state of affairs is the same at Berhampur University, Sambalpur University, Ravenshaw University and Rama Devi University with over 100 vacant posts. The situation at North Odisha University and Gangadhar Meher University and Sambalpur University, too, is alarming with over 50 vacant posts.

Sahoo said of the 2,306 teaching positions sanctioned in government degree colleges all over the state, 1,033 or 44.8 per cent were lying vacant. The maximum vacancies are in subjects like English with 114 vacant posts, history with 87 vacant posts, economics with 86 vacant posts and chemistry with 75 vacant positions.

The non-government aided colleges have teaching vacancies, too. A total of 1,353 of the 6,364 sanctioned teacher posts are lying vacant. Odiya tops the list with 224 vacancies followed by English with 159 vacancies.