Dr Abdul Rashid Choudhary
At a time when the nation is working hard to translate the vision of National Knowledge Commission for higher education in to visible actions, the most challenging task is to find the learned and experienced persons for our universities and other institutes of higher education. Keeping in view the above dimension, the UPA government in 2007 raised the retirement age for teachers in centrally funded educational institutions of higher learning across the country from 62 years to 65. The decision has been welcomed by educators and policy makers. The move was long overdue. Most of the good foreign universities do not have a retirement age for teachers and allow them to work as long as they can or want to. It is only in India that the government considered university teachers like other employees. Now central universities can retain good teachers and have more capable people in research positions. Considering that the universities have been plagued with a shortage of good faculty for long, this move should be able to check that. Since the teachers generally get appointed late owing to their research work, they should be allowed to serve for at least 33 years.
It is a nation’s shame that a country of 1.2 billion people, having around 400 universities and many national institutes of higher education and research has badly failed to make our presence felt in the first 100 or even in the list of first 200 finest higher education institutes of the world. Besides many international rankings, the two widely accepted ranking for the higher education and research institutes from all across the world, i.e. the Time Higher Education and Shanghai University Ranking 2013 revealed the sorry state of affairs of the Indian Universities and Institutes. Besides other dimensions of the crisis in quality education and research in Indian Universities and Institutes, the most visible is that the government and the society treat the University teachers as just another class of employees like doctors, engineers, accountants, civil servants etc. Credit also goes to our policies that failed us to attract the best young talent towards research and education.
University teachers are the people with experience, knowledge and wisdom who can see through the brains and thinking of the totality of the people in the society. Our bureaucracy consists of people with white matter. Therefore, the bureaucracy is afraid of the university teachers and keeps them away from the system. Our bureaucracy is not afraid of their political masters but of the senior people associated with higher education and research. Especially in Jammu and Kashmir , bureaucrats feel themselves pitched against experience, exposure and knowledge of university teachers. For the university teachers retirement should be voluntary rather than compulsory, as is the case in many progressive nations. University teachers should be allowed to work as long as one is physically and mentally fit and ready to learn new changes.
Fortunately, the famous saying that the best talent is not the best, actually the talent that come, stay, learn and deliver is the best, comes to our rescue. But unfortunately, those who came, stayed, learned and become experienced at around 60 years, we ask them to pack up and go. It is like plucking a flower which is ready to mature in a fruit. At the age of 60 they reach at their best potential to deliver. Unlike other profession, in case of university teachers, they have to come a long way before their induction in teaching. The national average age of induction of university teachers is 34 years, that means he/she only gets 26 years to deliver, if it the retirement age is 60 or 62 years. Also in our universities, the first 10 years of a university teacher is always under a lot of pressure from various quarters. It takes him/her another 10 years to get stabilised and decide real course of action. At an average, a professor is left with 10 years to actually deliver and when he is at his best, we hang the sword of retirement on his head. An average age of induction in other profession including the civil services is not more 27 years and they too retire at the same age of 60 and 62 years, in case of Central Government employees.
There are a number of good reasons for increasing the retirement age of Professors to at least 65 years. Firstly, there is a dearth of qualified, committed and motivated teachers in the field of higher education. Young people with good academic background do not opt for teaching. Secondly, the average life expectancy in India has gone beyond 65. So, there is no point in retiring an experienced person who is mentally and physically sound. Thirdly, a good number of teachers beyond the age of 60 may still be very active and contributing to teaching and research. They can be role models for the younger generation. Their presence among the young teachers could be a source of inspiration, fourthly it is only in his 50’s that a university become fully independent, experienced and most productive but the retirement abort the whole bunch of best thing he/she may be doing. Also, most of the recruitment in colleges and universities has been made for the post of teaching faculty in the age group of 28 to 35, since it is mandatory to clear NET or SET or acquiring PhD and also gaining experience to be a university teacher, which all require at least 10 years after completion of post graduation. As the teaching and research are of mental abilities and experience, they would be at their larger measures at the present age of retirement. It is immense need for the society to explore ideas or remedies to safeguard the future generation by motivating and encouraging more and more research and developmental activities in higher educational institutions involving most experienced people. There is acute shortage of qualified and experienced faculty in higher education in the country (37%). There are proven record of experienced faculty members, capable of delivering with commitment even at the age of 65-70 barring very few. Hence the age of retirement for teaching community should be increased to 65. The step will help in overcoming shortage of experienced teachers. Though, the bureaucracy may feel offended but the students will definitely get benefitted. Any academic decision that improves educational standards must be appreciated.
Many universities during the last 5-10 years are facing crisis as, the well qualified and experienced faculty had already retired years ago. This situation has created lack of continuum between the old and the younger faculty thereby causing shortage of faculty in the higher education system. The younger generations have nothing to lose in accepting the measure for the good of their professional growth. The number of universities, institutes and departments has been on abnormal increment in the country, without proper faculty. Faculty does not mean a simple graduate without any R&D experience or merely having a NET/JRF certificate. An experience makes a man very perfect. The value of any educational institution depends on the experienced and dedicated faculty. They must have published and guided many research works. With all these qualities, the experienced faculties can motivate the students to the best goals. In this perspective, the age of the university faculty must be enhanced up to 65 years. This act will not curtail the employment chances of the young generations. There are more than 37% of the University faculty positions vacant in the country. If the government takes this job, without any other idea, taking in to conscience of the University administration, there are ample opportunities for the youngsters. Many of the Indian politicians have been in official positions even up to 90 years of their age and same is true about the retired babus. Just political speeches do not serve the purpose. Government of Jammu and Kashmir must do some concrete efforts for employing the qualified youth in the higher education. The sooner the government sanctions and recruit the desired number of university teaching faculty position in Jammu and Kashmir, the better it is for the nation and academic health of our universities.
The Central Government increased the retirement age of professors in all the central universities from 62 to 65 years, few years back. Before that, the retirement age of professors of Central Universities was 62 with the provision for re-employment for three years after the superannuation. That time, there were allegations that this provision of re-employment was being “misused” by the authorities who took such decisions in an “arbitrary” manner. So Central Government decided to increase the retirement age of Professors to 65 uniformly. Same is happening in case of Jammu and Kashmir State Universities. A handful of teachers close to the corridors of the civil secretariat and administration gets the 60+2 years and not the genuine teachers with commendable contribution in research and academics. So, it is high time to replace the practice of pick and chose on the basis of personal likings with an increase in the retirement age. The retirement age of professors should be raised to 65 years in all the universities whether it is central or state university. Similarly the retirement age of the VCs should be extended up to 70 years. The qualifications for teaching post in central university and state universities are same. The difference in superannuation amounts to violation of human rights.
(The author is the Chairman at Earth Foundation International)
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