Teachers On Clock-Hour Basis Cannot Build India’s Future

Last month, the central government told the parliament that around 80% of posts sanctioned (339 out of 423) in central universities for professors under the OBC category and nearly 83% of posts (120 out of 144) for STs remained vacant. For SCs, 64% (197 out of 308) of all sanctioned posts remained vacant as of June 30, 2025. In the general category, 39% of sanctioned posts (603 out of 1538) of professors were vacant.

For associate professors, around 65% of sanctioned posts (199 out of 307) for STs, 51% (324 out of 632) for SCs and 69% (608 out of 883) for OBCs were vacant. On the other hand, for the general category, only 16% of posts (480 out of 3013) were vacant.

For assistant professors, vacancies were lowest: 23% (544 out of 2382) for OBCs, 15% (109 out of 704) for STs and 14% (190 out of 1370) for SCs. That is, taken together, nearly 26% of the total 18951 sanctioned posts across positions and categories remained vacant.

In other words, the data inform us that in central universities—the best state-funded segment of higher education institutions in the country—there is a glaring crisis of the absence of teachers at two levels: one, the simple absence of an adequate number of qualified, permanent, full-time teachers across institutions; second, even as the central government routinely and loudly claims to protect the interests of marginalised sections, in practice, it blatantly and persistently refuses to appoint enough teachers in higher education (the surest path of upward social mobility in India for the marginalised) from these sections, as recommended by its own reservation policy.

At the state level, let me illustrate the crisis of the absence of full-time, permanent teachers through data about Maharashtra, as reported recently. In Maharashtra, government and government-aided colleges have a 38% shortage of teachers. As of December 31, 2024, as many as 11,918 posts of lecturers and assistant professors, out of a total of 31,185 posts, were vacant in 2000 government-aided colleges. In the University of Mumbai, aided colleges have a vacancy rate of 41% with 2127 vacancies. The implementation of the New Education Policy in colleges in the last two years—which introduced skill-based and practical subjects—has made the crisis worse. As a result, colleges have to increasingly rely on teachers appointed on a clock-hour basis (CHB): a stop-gap arrangement has become the new normal, said a senior faculty member from a Mumbai college.

The situation has been so serious that even established colleges in Mumbai now regularly advertise vacancies for CHB posts, contractual posts akin to daily-wage workers, with no job security and no long-term benefits. For example, one Mumbai college recently advertised for 50 CHB teachers, and another one advertised for 40 CHB teachers. In fact, only around one-third of all posts are filled by permanent teachers, according to data made available by teachers’ organisations.

Further, technically, CHB teachers are hired only for actual working days: about 180 days a year and are paid accordingly. With a measly pay per lecture, only the most desperate are willing to join; others either migrate to elite private universities, which pay much better, or give up teaching altogether in favour of industry. Some colleges appoint full-time temporary teachers and pay them a consolidated amount out of their own funds—much less than the UGC scales—but many colleges don’t have the money for even such appointments. And yet, ironically, even for CHB appointments, teachers must meet the minimum requirements as per the UGC guidelines, and colleges still need to seek government approval for these posts.

It is not simply an issue of appointing enough teachers. With CHB appointments, colleges can no longer be judged for the quality of their teaching, since it keeps changing from year to year. The core strength of the credibility of a college—the quality of its permanent faculty—is thus eroded. The result? While previously, for decades, one could easily decide which college to choose for a particular course depending on the faculty, increasingly, this is no longer the case.

Further, full-time teachers don’t only teach; they also have to carry out many administrative and examination-related tasks on a regular basis. Then, the UGC requires that teachers in colleges and universities must undertake research activities and regularly publish. The CHB teachers have no motivation to perform any of these tasks.

In major state universities in Maharashtra, in university departments, the situation is quite grim. Of all sanctioned posts, Nagpur University has 66%, Mumbai has 65%, Kolhapur has 61%, and Pune and Marathwada have 60% vacancies! Essentially, the government is increasingly encouraging casualisation of higher education in state-funded colleges. (As per the UGC directions, all states must fill at least 80% of sanctioned posts to maintain their accreditation grades under the NAAC.)

Thus, even as governments across the country continue to announce the setting up of new institutes, including premium institutions like IITs and IIMs, the persistent absence of full-time, permanent faculty on a large scale points to a systematic failure of procedures of selection and recruitment of faculty and the lack of a political will to provide a long-term solution to this problem.

At another level, every time a state government is faced with a fiscal crisis, its first reaction is to immediately freeze appointments, especially in higher education institutions. This reflects the lack of serious commitment of budgetary support to higher education. Sadly, there are no signs to suggest that the situation will improve in the near future.

Vrijendra taught in a Mumbai college for more than 30 years and has been associated with democratic rights groups in the city.