58% of regular assistant professor posts vacant in Haryana govt colleges: RTI reply

Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch convener Subhash told The Indian Express that he received these figures from the department on April 30 this year in response to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

However, when contacted by The Indian Express, a senior officer of the department claimed that they have nearly 25% vacancies, as more than 2,000 guest teachers or extension lecturers too are working in the colleges, apart from regular assistant professors. “Specifically, there are nearly 2,500 vacant posts in the state colleges, as extension lecturers are filling in for other vacancies. By this mathematics, nearly 70% of our posts are filled,” said the officer. The officials have also been claiming that the process to fill the vacant posts is on.

In September 2023, sources say, the higher education department had informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that more than 50% of the total sanctioned posts of the assistant professors for the state-run colleges were lying vacant.

The RTI activist (Subhash) says that the services of the guest teachers or extension lecturers are just a stop-gap arrangement as they haven’t been regularised despite their demand for the same.

“The absence of the regular assistant professors has adversely affected the education in the government colleges. In the past nine years, as many as 77 new government colleges were opened in the state. But one can easily gauge the kind of education that would be offered in the absence of adequate staff,” he added.

According to Subhash, the highest vacant posts were found in 15 government colleges of Haryana’s Mahendragarh district.

“As per the workload, there should be 913 teachers but there are only 198 regular teachers and 240 guest or extension lecturers there (Mahendragarh). Similarly, there are only 195 regular and 176 guest and extension lecturers in Bhiwani’s 11 colleges against the requirement of 574 teachers,” Subhash said, adding that the government colleges of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula, and Ambala are also beset by such vacancies.

Subhash said the students of English are the worst-hit, as the number of vacant posts in this faculty stands at 625. Similarly, positions of 195 mathematics teachers, 118 botany, 314 commerce and nearly 500 geography teachers are also lying vacant in government colleges.

Two days ago, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had announced that recruitment for 50,000 posts across various categories would be initiated soon in the state. In addition to this, “Group-D jobs will also be made available to the youths”. He also stressed that during its tenure, the BJP government has given jobs purely on merit basis without any discrimination, and this transparent recruitment process will continue in the future.
Opposition leaders have attacked the Haryana government on the issue.

In a post on ‘X’ in Hindi, Rajya Sabha member and senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said: “There are no professors of English, geography, mathematics, commerce, botany, chemistry and computer science! The BJP government wants Haryana to remain illiterate! Education is possible with the farewell of the BJP in Haryana.”

INLD senior leader and MLA Abhay Singh Chautala said: “In all the districts, the government colleges are facing shortage of teachers. How will the students get education if there is a shortage of teachers in schools and colleges?”

During the winter session of the Assembly in December 2023, Chautala had raised this issue stating that more than 2 lakh government posts were lying vacant in the state. He had said that a government with “over 45% vacant posts can’t ensure progress”.

“As many as 71,000 posts are lying vacant only in the education department. How can children from poor families study in government schools with so many vacancies? As many as 14,864 posts are lying vacant in the state health department, too, which has a total sanctioned strength of 25,000 staff. As many as 12,122 posts out of total sanctioned strength of 20,463 are lying vacant in the irrigation department, apart from 21,500 vacancies in the state police,” Chautala had stated.

Rohtak-based RTI activist Subhash is a writer. He has written six books on new literates and one book on children facing atrocities, apart from penning two books on the RTI Act. He formed Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch in 2007 to offer a platform to RTI activists. Subhash says the body now has nearly 1,000 members. He has also been running a fortnightly newspaper “India Post” exclusively for RTI-related news since 2005.