10K teachers to court arrest on September 4

MUMBAI: Nearly 75,000 seats for aided college teachers are lying vacant in universities and colleges in Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (MFUCTO) has alleged. As per the University Grants Commission (UGC) recommendation, Maharashtra needs 1.5 lakh regular teachers but only 50 per cent of the quota is full as the remaining seats are either vacant or have teachers on clock hour basis.

Since 2015, there has been a partial ban on the recruitment of teachers by the state government. However, in 2017, the state declared a complete ban on the same. Following this, colleges stopped recruiting permanent teachers and preferred to recruit teachers on a contractual or clock hour basis i.e. temporary basis. Dr Tapati Mukhopadhyay, president of MFUCTO, said that around 10,000 teachers from across the state will come together on September 4 and participate in “court arrest” action at the Mumbai University Fort campus to press for their demands.

“Through this protest, we want the government to immediately lift the ban on appointments, and fill up all vacancies on a regular basis in strict conformity with the teacher-student ratio.”

As per UGC norms, there should be one teacher for 20 students i.e., the teacher-student ratio should be 1:20. Ms Mukhopadhyay further said, “By these decisions of the government, they are directly or indirectly bringing down the quality of higher education. In today’s time, the most popular and prominent colleges in south Mumbai, too, have 30 to 40 per cent vacant seats in their colleges. How are these people expecting us to give the best education when there are no teachers in colleges!”