Maharashtra
Verdict reserved
On August 4, a bench of the Bombay high court reserved its verdict on a PIL (public interest litigation) writ challenging the percentile system which seeks to ‘normalise’ marks scored by students writing the school leaving exams of differing examination boards. After hearing the case of the parent of a CISCE board affiliated school student who complained that the system is biased in favour of state board (SSC) students, the court declined to stay the admission process into intermediate college (class XI) revised by the Maharashtra state government, as the process is complete in most colleges/higher secondaries. But the court specified that the whole process would be subject to the judgement.
According to the state government’s counsel, there are class XI vacancies in several colleges in Mumbai. At the state level there are 97,239 vacancies, while in the city there are around 1,900 vacancies, he said. Nevertheless after a query from the bench he conceded that most of the “eminent” colleges in the city had no vacancies. Following this, the court asked the government to furnish a list of “colleges preferred by the students”, and also aggregate figures of intake capacity and students admitted into class XI statewide, before delivering its judgement.
Delhi
Call for 735 new varsities
To increase the percentage of students in the age group 18-24 in higher education from the current 10 percent to 15 percent during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12), a UGC committee has suggested the promotion of an additional 735 universities in the country. The committee, comprising Prof. Duraisami of Madras University and Prof. Sudhansu Bhusan of the National University of Education Planning and Administration, Delhi, said that the additional universities will be needed to increase gross enrollment ratio (GER) to 15 percent.
Constituted to suggest reform of the affiliation system and monitoring of education in the Eleventh Plan, the committee has calculated 20,000 students per university to achieve this GER. “We will study the report and make a final suggestion to state governments for starting the new varsities,” UGC chairman Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat told the media.
The committee’s report assumes significance in view of the National Knowledge Commission stating that 1,500 universities are needed to trans-form India into a knowledge society.
Faculty crunch in IITs
IITs across the country will need 3,000 teachers in the next ten years to manage teaching and research activities, a top IIT official disclosed on August 4. The institutes have prepared a blueprint on possible teachers’ shortage after the Union government changed the criteria for sanctioning faculty posts in these elite institutes. “In ten years time, the 13 IITs will need 3,000 teachers. At present, 10-20 percent of sanctioned posts are vacant in these institutes,” says IIT-Delhi director Surendra Prasad.
The IITs usually recruit faculty from research institutes within the country and abroad. “There is a proposal that we may have to launch a global hunt for getting faculty members for the institutes,” adds Prasad.
The Union HRD ministry recently reduced the number of sanctioned faculty positions in the IITs, following the drawing up of new student-teacher ratios. The approved ratio earlier was 9:1. However, it has been changed to 10:1 which has led to reduction of sanctioned strength of the seven IITs countrywide. IIT-Delhi which hitherto had a sanctioned strength of 556 teaching posts, has now 506 as per the new criteria. Currently IIT-D has 448 faculty on its rolls. After expanding its annual intake capacity following the reservation of a 27 percent quota for OBC students without reducing the general (merit) category intake as per recent legislation, the sanctioned faculty strength of IIT-D under the new norms will rise to 776.
Andhra Pradesh
Reservation for Muslims
The andhra pradesh government has welcomed the Supreme Court’s August 5 decision permitting it to go ahead with admissions in higher educational institutions under a controversial law, that provides 4 percent reservation of seats for backward Muslims.“This is fulfillment of a promise we made to the people. This has happened for the first time in the country. We thank the Supreme Court,” Andhra power minister Mohd. Ali Shabbir told reporters. However, a bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan made it clear that admissions will be subject to the outcome of a bunch of petitions to be heard by the Andhra Pradesh high court challenging the validity of the law.
Framing the issues during the hearing of the writ petition contesting the state government’s reservation of 4 percent of annual intake into government higher education institutions in favour of ‘backward community Muslims’, the bench said the question to be examined is whether Muslim groups brought within the ambit of reservation can be considered backward classes. It said the petitioners have to show that there was some illegality in categorising them as backward Muslims. Earlier on April 29, a seven-judge bench of the high court had restrained the state government from implementing this proposal.
Bihar
Varsity staff strike
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is highly critical of 35,000 non-teaching employees of nine universities in the state, and the staff of their 250 constituent colleges, continuing an indefinite strike. Speaking to media reporters on August 4, he expressed displeasure about the agitation of non-teaching staff which has been supported by teachers associations and federations. “University staff and teachers are not government employees. They are university employees with the state government providing grants to universities for smooth functioning,” said Kumar.
The non-teaching staff began their strike after talks between the Bihar State University and College Employees’ Federation and the state government on June 30 failed, paralysing teaching as well as administrative work in colleges across the state. The main demands of striking employees include merger of 50 percent dearness allowance with the basic salary, career promotion and removal of pay anomalies.