Mumbai: The teachers’ recruitment interview process in non-agricultural state universities will be recorded on video to ensure transparency. The hiring will follow a methodology wherein academic quality, research, and teaching will be given a weightage of 80%, while interviews will get 20% weightage. Teachers who get a combined score of at least 50% will be declared eligible for the final selection. Moreover, interview results will be announced the same day or the next day, unlike the current process where it takes sometimes even up to a month to release the selected candidates’ list.
State govt’s approval of a new teachers’ recruitment methodology will set into motion the hiring process which has been on hold for over a decade across universities. While the govt resolution is yet to be released, the state’s higher and technical education minister, Chandrakant Patil, announced the changes in a statement released on Thursday.
Patil, in his statement, said a new methodology will be adopted for filling teaching positions to enhance transparency and impartiality in the selection process and govt has already approved it. He added that under the guidance of the governor, who is also the chancellor of all state universities, a grading system has been established for the selection of assistant professors, associate professors, and professors. The process will take into account the candidates’ academic credentials (80% weightage) and performance in interviews (20%). The candidates will have to achieve at least 50% of the total 100 marks to be eligible for the final selection.
While the minister’s statement mentions only universities, affiliated colleges may also have to follow the process, said a professor.
The teachers’ recruitment process ran into controversy over alleged corruption last year. The starting salaries for the top post — for university professors, including all allowances — is up to Rs 2.8 lakh, and therefore it is an open secret that there is huge corruption involved in the hiring process, said the professor.
In the new system, the assessment of the teaching aptitude of candidates or their research proficiency will be considered at the interview stage through seminars, lecture demonstrations, or discussions on the use of the latest technology, said Patil’s statement. The audio-visual recordings of the interview will be sealed with the signatures of all selection committee members, and the results will be announced on the same or next day.
C S Kulkarni, general secretary of the Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union, said the assessment standards should be objective and not leave any scope for subjectivity. “What if I have the skillset, but am not able to convey it during the interview? The assessment during the interview still leaves scope for subjectivity. Though recording interviews and announcing the results the same day will bring in a lot of transparency in the process,” he said.