Hyderabad: Colleges Reel From Shortage of Teaching Staff

 Hyderabad: Degree and PG colleges in the state are grappling with a shortage of teaching staff, with experts estimating a shortage of 20-30 per cent in most colleges. This has also affected the number of PG enrolments, with only 15 to 20 students signing up against a permitted class strength of 60.

The shortage is especially acute for newer courses such as business analytics and data sciences, with some private colleges also reportedly roping in experts to cover the entire curriculum of a semester in two to three classes.

Experts attribute the shortage to fewer people opting for teaching as a profession following the Covid-19 lockdown, with most who had quit teaching during the peak pandemic also failing to return to teaching obs.

There are around 780 colleges affiliated with Osmania University alone, they said.

Mohammed Ishaq, a degree student at a private college in Basheerbagh, said: “Even though it’s a chain of colleges with lot of advertisement hoarding across the city, we have completed three semesters without having lecturers for business analytics. When some parents questioned the management on this, management returned their money and sent them out.”

Dr Y.K.M Naidu, director of Pragathi Mahavidyalaya PG institute, said: “This is the plight of the education system. Most reputed colleges too are lacking teaching staff by at least 20 to 30 per cent. Teaching is a challenging profession, in which salaries are not attractive. Most of the professionals have moved to corporates, where they get incentives, allowances and more salaries, with five-day work week.”

He said, “The shortfall is persisting for a decade but spiked during the lockdown. Those who were not paid started petty businesses, earning more in such roles than in teaching.”

Prof B. Srinagesh, director of academics audit, Osmania University, said, “During our inspections, we have noted shortage of faculty in most of the colleges. We have informed the same to the higher authorities too. We have also noticed a fall in admission of students to these colleges.”

He said: “Telangana state is having a UG strength of 4 lakh but the intake is less, at 2-2.5 lakh. In Osmania University PG courses, there are 8,000 seats and all the seats are 100 per cent full.”

“In OU-affiliated PG colleges, during the inspection, we found that a class of 60 had only 15 to 20 admissions. The teaching faculty needs to clear, State Level Eligibility Test and National Eligibility Test, which are challenging,” he said.