The Ministry of Education has provided the data in Lok Sabha that over 40% of teaching posts in all IITs over the nation are vacant. This question was raised by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. As per the data provided by the education ministry, there are 6511 teaching faculty working in the IITs and a total of 4370 posts are vacant in all 23 IITs.
Data highlighted Reservation’s Truth in IITs
The data provided by Government also highlighted the poor representation of faculty distribution based on reservation. out of 6511 teaching staff in IITs, only 12% represents SC (Scheduled Castes), ST (Scheduled Tribes), OBC, and EWS (economically weaker sections). The ministry of education did not provide categories wise data of faculties. However, a previous reply in Parliament, shows that only 32 from ST, 183 from SC, and 462 are from OBC communities.
IIT Dhanbad has the highest vacancy having 57.2% post vacant. IIT Kharagpur follows with 53.4% vacancy. IIT Delhi has the lowest 9.4% vacant faculty post.
Mission Mode to fill vacant seats
The Minister of Education replied that there is a special recruitment drive is under process under mission mode from September 2021 to September 2022 to fill the vacant seats under reserved categories. Mr. Shashi Tharoor had questions about vacancies, student to faculty ration and steps taken to fll the vacancies. It is important to note that special recruitment drive has already under criticism as various problems posed flexible structure has not been addressed yet. As per flexible cadre sanctioned faculty strength is not fixed category-wise and overall number is allotted. IITs were implementing reservation only at the level of Assistant Professor.