1 L upset teachers searching party, candidates cautiously in polls

--Elected public representatives cheated us

--5 L voters in 1 L families

Lokmat News Network

By Mehboob Inamdar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Nearly 1 lakh aspiring senior college teachers are actively searching for a political party and candidates in the State's Assembly elections who will fight their demands, including the recruitment of staff for all vacant positions and increased funding for aided colleges.

There are nearly 1 lakh youths who have qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) or State Eligibility Test (SET) or Ph D to become a teacher in senior colleges.

There were over 12500 vacant posts in aided senior colleges in the State while over 4,000 posts were filled with a gap during the last five years. However, thousands of candidates are upset because of not filling all 8,000 vacant posts. Each teacher has an average five members in his/her family including parents and wife. Thus, they have around 5 lakh members who will vote in the election from the different parts of the State. Their main demand is to fill all vacant posts.

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Cheating by elected representatives

Dr Sandeep Pathrikar, the president of Maharashtra Navpradhyapak Sanghatna said that around 1 lakh teachers are searching for a party and candidates to exercise their franchise in the Assembly elections.

He said that the public representatives elected from Graduates' and Teachers' Constituencies cheated unemployed qualified aspiring teachers by not making any efforts to fill all the vacant posts and reduce unemployment.

“One lakh unemployed teachers have 5 lakh members in the State including our parents, siblings and life partners. We will vote for a party and candidates who will resolve our issue of recruitment in the State. Our State has the highest number of qualified unemployed youth,” he claimed.

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Nobody talking about unemployment

Another teacher Sunil Gaikwad said that the State Government started implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) for the postgraduate and undergraduate colleges from this academic year.

“The issue of caste and religion is being debated. But, no one is talking about unemployment. The number of vacant posts is rising due to retirement which is putting an additional burden on existing teachers. They also have election duty. They are under stress. On the contrary, NET, SET or Ph D qualified candidates have been waiting to get full-time jobs in aided colleges for the past several years. This is high time that aspiring teachers should vote for a party or candidates who are interested seriously in their recruitment issue,” he added.

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NoC made complicated

Earlier, the no-objection certificate (NOC) for recruitment in the colleges was issued by the joint director of the respective divisions in the State. “Around two years ago, the Government made a centralised system of issuing NoC which is timing time-consuming and tiresome process,” the teachers said.

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--Number of aided colleges in State 1200 colleges

--Total number of approved posts 34,511 in granted colleges

--Number of filled post 2,3000

--Total number of vacant posts 8000 in State

--Recently filled 4200 posts from 2017 to 2024

--No new post created

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--Staffing pattern for colleges approved in 2001

--Recruitment conducted as per Government orders of 2017

--1200 vacant posts in 115 aided colleges in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division

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CHB teachers 21,000

The help of teachers working on a clock-hour basis (CHB) is being taken to complete the syllabus. Earlier, the number of CHB teachers was 8,800 while today it has risen to 21,000.