Bihar set to announce 4638 vacancies of Assistant Professor ahead of polls -education
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Bihar government had constituted the Bihar state university service commission in February 2019, with Dr Rajvardhan Azad, former chief and professor of ophthalmology at the All India Institute of Medical sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, as the chairman, to carry out appointments faster.
Around 19 months later, just before the notification of assembly election, Bihar is set to announce 4638 vacancies of assistant professors in 52 subjects for various subjects in State’s seriously understaffed universities and colleges. Many colleges and departments in the state continue to run without any teacher or just one or two.
Azad said the advertisement for vacancies would be given in a day or two. “We wanted to advertise the vacancies earlier, but it got a bit delayed due to its late arrival in the prescribed format as per reservation roster applicable in Bihar. We received it on Sunday only from the education department and we are busy giving it final shape,” he added.
The chairman said that unlike earlier, he would like the appointment process to be completed in a time bound manner. With more half of his term gone, he would like the process to get underway in December, as around 40 days would be given to the candidates for applying.
“Everything will be online – right from advertising the posts to applying. There are six members in the commission and so we will have six boards for conducting interviews in two shifts – 15 candidates in each shift. If the need be, I will also chip in. The objective is to complete the process and give Bihar universities the teachers they need,” said Azad.
The education department has sent the subject-wise vacancies after rationalization, which explains the lesser number compared to nearly 8000 vacancies estimated a couple of years ago. Earlier, the department had sent university-wise vacancy status, which the commission did not approve. LN Mithila University (Darbhanga) and Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University (Muzaffarpur) have the highest number of vacancies of 856 and 826 respectively. Patna University, which has been left with less than 280 teachers, has got 273 vacancies, which means that even after appointments it will short of the its sanctioned strength.
The Raj Bhawan had last month passed the statute for the appointment of assistant professors and following uproar and subsequent intervention of chief minister Nitish Kumar, a revised notification was also issued earlier this month by relaxing norms for doctorates from the state universities, which were late to implement 2009 notification of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
In 2017, Bihar legislature had passed the Bihar state university service commission Act. Before Nitish government’s advent in 2005, all appointments were through the commission, but it was dissolved in 2007 to vest the power of appointment in selection committees at the university level. However, the committees could not carry out any appointment following legal tangle between the state government and the Raj Bhawan and later the responsibility was given to the Bihar Public Service Commission.
BPSC had advertised 3364 vacancies in 2014 nearly 17 years after the last advertisement in 1997 and the interview process got underway in 2015 stretched up to 2020. During the period, growing vacancies due to retirement virtually diluted fresh intake.
Subjects — Vacancies
English —253
Hindi— 292
History—- 316
Pol Sci —- 280
Eco – –266
Psychology—- 424
Physics — – -300
Chemistry —-332
Math —-261
Zoology —-285
Botany —333
