In the list of the top hundred rankings, there is no university or college of ours, though all leading tech firms have CEOs of Indian origin who are alumni of our IITs, IIMs, IISc, or NITs, but still, none of these institutes is in the league of Harvard, Stanford, or Oxford Universities. Strange as it may seem, something is missing somewhere. Parsing of the available information as shared in the Parliament reveals the true reason: twenty-two thousand posts are lying vacant in IITs, IIMs, Central Universities, and NITs. These figures speak to the real state of affairs in our education system, where almost six thousand and two hundred posts of teaching staff are vacant, a grim reality by any standards. All these educational institutions are the prestigious institutes of our country, and mere buildings can never be the educational hubs of the world. IITs alone have a teaching faculty shortage of 4,425 positions, while NITs have a shortage of over 2000. These colleges are our centres of technical excellence, and how the management of these colleges are managing things without faculty is a different case study altogether, an injustice with students who pay a high fee and, in return, lack faculty. More disturbing is the fact that, on the one hand, highly qualified youth are looking for suitable opportunities to utilise their years of hard work, and on the other hand, there are so many vacant posts. Who are the real culprits? What are the institutions conducting yearly inspections of these colleges and universities doing? What is the role of UGC for Central Universities, or for that matter, governing bodies and the board of directors? Adhocism is the flavour of the day now, with unemployed youth exploited for meagre lump sums and fixed amounts equitable with daily wagers’ monthly emoluments. The tragic part is that the majority of them are overage and are not even considered for permanent positions on which they have worked for years. Teaching is both an art and a passion that not everyone is born with. It is a privilege to help shape the minds and careers of young aspirants. This staff shortage seems to be more prominent in newly opened IITs, IIMs, NITs, and Central Universities, which despite having the prestigious tag are not able to compete, and all these drawbacks are considered and reflected during the placement period, with top college students getting packages of crores and others struggling to get even a few lakhs.
The situation in our technical institutes and universities here in Jammu and Kashmir is no different. Hundreds of posts are lying vacant. All these things lead to degraded NAAC rankings, and in the absence of top faculties, even grants are held up. All these things have cascading effects, with the available teaching staff overstretched and not able to give their all. The reasons are not financial for sure, as vacancies are created after procedural approval from the Finance Department. GoI and the local administration must look into the reasons and resolve the issue on top priority. All these vacancies are to be filled by the institutions themselves after following due procedures, and the reasons for noncompliance must also be investigated. Present Administration is deeply concerned about youth but so many posts lying vacant when youth are finding it hard to survive, a serious matter indeed.
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