A startling revelation is to the fore. Large-scale job losses have been witnessed in the higher education sector in Odisha over the years. The State saw job losses to the tune of over 7k during the period of 2015-18. Though the pre-election and election year had witnessed some recruitment, still the colleges in the State are sitting over huge vacancies.
When during the period of 2015-18, the job losses in the State colleges were around 7,167, Odisha saw some recruitment in the pre-election and election year. A total of 3,217 had been given an appointment during the period of 2019-20.
However, the big emerging fact today is the vacancies in the teaching faculty in State colleges stood at a whopping 3,950. Another interesting trend observed over the years is the State had recruited more women as teachers than males in State colleges during the years 2018-20.
Sorry State Of Affairs
As per the AISHE (All India Status on Higher Education) 2019-20 report, a total of 43,368 teaching staff were in position in the State colleges in 2015-16. The teaching faculty count in the State colleges today stood at 40,056.
Huge job losses witnessed in the State during the consecutive years 2016-17 and 2017-18, when over 7k had lost their jobs in the higher edu sector across the State.
Significantly, the years saw large-scale protests by teaching staff in the aided colleges in the State. Even, in the drubbing the ruling party witnessed in the 2017 rural polls, the deep resentment of job losses had been considered as one of the factors behind poll jolts to the ruling party then.
Interestingly, the very next year 2018-19 saw some fresh recruitment of teaching faculty in State colleges. And more women teachers got appointment offer than males.
Sample the Trend
As per the data available, during the year of 2015-17, the gender-wise job losses in the higher edu sector in the State stood at Male - 5724 and Female - 1446.
Similarly, the new recruitment during the years 2018-20, the gender divide has been the following. When female teachers recruited stood at 1946, a total of 1,632 males have received the appointment offer during the period.
A glance at the AISHE-2019-20 report shows that not only a drop has been recorded in the regular teaching staff in State colleges. The report documents a drop in the visiting faculty staff in colleges. The strength of visiting faculty in Odisha dropped by over 55 per cent to 259 in 2019-20.