Recently the Higher Education Minister spoke in a function that from the coming education year there will not be shortage of lecturers in universities and colleges of the state. But investigating the facts we can conclude the speech of the minister. He said, in junior colleges employment of 272 lecturer posts are going on. A few have already joined, and some are going to join soon. For Degree Colleges total 354 posts have been finalized. But as the matter is in the court so there is delay in posting. Proposals have been given to create new post for new universities including GM University. After acceptance of the proposal new employment will be given and the problem of vacant lecture issue will be sorted out, said the minister.
But the question arises how all the vacant post in government degree colleges will be filled if 354 lecturers will be employed. There are 46 government degree colleges including the universities in the state. Till lecturers are not posted in the new universities, degree college lecturers will be employed there in an arrangement basis. In all these colleges half of the posts are lying vacant. Let examine the situation of some colleges of western Odisha.
In GM University got approval of 119 lecturers post. Including all posts at present the strength of GM University is 61 and still 58 posts are lying vacant. There is no professor in the university and the status of research can be assessed. Rajendra Autonomus College Balangir has been approved 63 posts and now the strength of lectures is 27 and 36 posts are lying vacant. Bhawanipatna Autonomous College has been approved 59 but at present the strength of lectures is 23 and 36 posts is lying vacant. Similarly, Panchayat College Bargarh has been approved 60 posts but 29 are employed and 31 lying vacant. Earlier numbers of approved posts of all these colleges were more comparatively now. In these 4 major institutions of western Odisha total posts lying vacant are 161. Now, after a few months again a few posts will get vacant due to retirement of some lecturers. So the number of vacant posts is increasing. Now in this situation how the vacated posts will be fulfilled with 354 lecturers in 46 colleges.
The situations of junior colleges are a bit better than degree colleges. Though lecturers post lying vacant in junior colleges of the state is comparatively less than the degree college. Approved post in GM Junior College is 44 and strength is 39. Rajendra College Balangir has got approval of 29 posts and present strength is 23. 5 Posts are lying vacant out of 25 approved posts at Bhawanipatana College. Similarly, 8 posts are lying vacant at Panchayat College Bargarh out of 26 approved posts.