To tide over huge vacancies in principals posts in colleges across Maharashtra,the states higher and technical education department has written a letter to the University Grants Commission (UGC),requesting it to bring down the minimum qualification of 15 years teaching experience to 12 years for the state. At present,several colleges do not have full-time principals and are making do with in-charge principals. We have written to the UGC saying that it should consider relaxing the teaching experience criterion for principals posts from 15 years to 12 years for state. There is a dearth of suitable candidates to fill up the post of principals. If the UGC okays our proposal,it will,to some extent,help meet the shortage of college heads, said a higher education department official. Around six months ago,the higher education department and vice chancellors of 13 universities in the state had met to take stock of the efforts being taken to fill up principals posts. It was then revealed that around 1,870 posts were lying vacant across universities,with 1,700 vacancies in permanently unaided colleges and 170 in government aided colleges. A little over 1,000 vacancies were in Mumbai,Pune,Nagpur,Amravati and Marathwada universities,mostly in the permanently unaided colleges. Acting on a 2008 high court order,the states higher education department had issued a Government Resolution (GR) in 2009 to universities in the state,asking them to fill up posts of principals by March 31,2009. College managements then moved the Supreme Court. The SC gave an extension of one year to the colleges,giving them time till May 31,2010,to fill up the posts. Several colleges failed to meet the deadline. An extension of another six months was granted by the court in June last year. However,since many colleges have not been able to fill up posts yet,individual trusts have approached the apex court. Yet another proposal,which has been doing the rounds since last year,is to increase the retirement age of both principals and teachers. The retirement age in government colleges is 58 years,while it is 60 years in aided colleges. We are proposing a relaxation of the age criterion. We want to increase the retirement age to 62 years for principals and teachers, Higher and Technical Education Minister Rajesh Tope said.
