The Eighth Session of the 13th Tripura Assembly started Friday with Opposition MLAs questioning the government’s decision to reduce the session by a day to accommodate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on September 22.
The Treasury and Opposition benches also exchanged barbs over a ‘lack’ of regular professors in higher educational institutions in the state.
CPI(M) MLA Nayan Sarkar and Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman moved questions on the required faculty strength in colleges and universities across the state.
In response to the question on required faculty strength, Higher Education Minister Kishor Barman said the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) regulation for the minimum student-teacher ratio is 60:1 for general degree colleges, and as per the required criterion, Tripura needs 1,208 faculty members in government colleges.
The minister told the House that Tripura has 1,279 faculty members, including 461 regular faculty members, 160 Post Graduate Teachers (PGT), and 654 guest faculty members, taking the figure above the required strength.
In the case of professional degree colleges, the higher education minister informed that the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) guidelines mandate a 30:1 student-teacher ratio. As per the formula, Barman said 46 regular faculty members are needed in such colleges, while the state has 53 regular faculty members, 15 PGTs, and 39 guest faculty members.
Minister Kishor Barman also informed that the guidelines of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) stipulate a 25:1 student-teacher ratio in technical and polytechnic colleges.
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As per the AICTE formula, Tripura needs 120 regular faculty members for institutions in this category. However, the northeastern state already has 143 regular faculty members, he said.
Raising supplementary questions, MLAs Sudip Roy Barman and Sarkar questioned how the education minister depended on a 60:1 student-teacher ratio and instead claimed that the UGC-approved faculty-student ratio (FSR) is 30:1.
“The UGC guidelines say a 30:1 student-teacher ratio has to be maintained. But the higher education minister informed the House that it is 60:1. How did the minister change the ratio? I feel the norms aren’t observed in many places. Colleges and universities build future citizens of the country. If faculty recruitment criteria aren’t honoured, society stands to lose,” MLA Sarkar said.
He also said that the higher education department and the Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC) are hiring assistant professors in general degree colleges with an eligible upper age limit of 40, while the UGC has maintained no upper age limit for the recruitment of assistant professors across the country.
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The minister responded, saying, “As per UGC guidelines, we need 1,208 regular faculty members. There is a shortage of 747 regular college teachers. We have already sent a requisition to hire 201 assistant professors to the TPSC, while a proposal to hire 200 more assistant professors has received concurrence from the finance department.”
Leader of Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury joined the discussion and said most of the educational institutions in the state are running with guest faculty members.
He added that running colleges with guest faculty members is tantamount to dishonouring UGC guidelines.
Sudip Roy Barman said a section of officials were “mis-briefing” the minister on the subject and added that his replies were “not factual”.
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BJP Chief Whip Kalyani Roy shot back at Opposition MLAs over their allegations and enquired how many regular assistant professors were hired as per UGC rules during the Left Front regime, to which the education minister said he didn’t have the data forthwith.
The minister then stated that his department was following UGC rules, and if there were some aberrations, the government would address them as well.
