It is ironic that the Supreme Court had to order higher education institutions to fill vacant teaching positions within four months. Governments should have been vigilant about this. Because they are not diligent in filling teaching positions on a priority basis, a large number of teaching positions remain vacant in both government and private higher education institutions.

It’s unfair that the Supreme Court had to take on a task that should have been handled by the government. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that teaching positions often remain vacant for years. The dire situation is evident from the fact that even central universities are grappling with the problem of teaching vacancies.

This means that even the Ministry of Education is not vigilant about ensuring that teaching positions do not remain vacant for long. Due to this lack of vigilance, even the position of Vice-Chancellor remains vacant in many universities. It is difficult to understand why this is so. Of course, it cannot be said that there is a lack of qualified candidates to fill the vacant teaching positions.

Vacant teaching positions create numerous problems in educational institutions. This not only disrupts teaching and learning but also increases student distress. Considering these concerns, the Supreme Court found that a significant number of teaching and non-teaching positions remain vacant in the country’s higher education institutions.

This can be understood from the fact that 4,000 teaching positions are vacant in Bihar’s universities. In Haryana, some universities have not recruited professors, associate professors, or assistant professors for six years, while others have for eight. As a result, approximately 60 percent of the positions are vacant. Similarly, in 15 of Madhya Pradesh’s 19 government universities, more than 70 percent of teaching positions are vacant. The situation is similar in other states as well.

This means that higher education is running on God’s mercy. This deplorable situation exists even after five years of the implementation of the new education policy, which places special emphasis on the student-teacher ratio. The problem isn’t just that a large number of teaching positions are vacant. Along with teaching positions, non-teaching positions are also vacant. This situation weakens the higher education infrastructure. It should not be long before we understand that the level of higher education requires significant improvement, and this cannot be achieved while teaching positions remain vacant.