Delhi University will be recruiting 2, 860 permanent teachers in order to address the issue of faculty crunch. The university is facing shortage of teachers since the implementation of complete 54% reservation for students of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in 2010 which has increased the student strength considerably. The recruitment will start in June 2011 for the undergraduate courses across various colleges of the university. Elaborating on the decision, vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh said, “Since the number of students has increased due to OBC reservation, colleges needed permanent teachers to address the increased class strength. Also, with the university implementing the semester system in humanities and commerce courses this year, the workload of teachers will increase. So, the sanction of these permanent positions from the government has been timely.” The recruitment however will be done in a phased manner over two to three years. The principals of various colleges praised the decision saying with the implementation of OBC reservation, the student strength of a class, earlier 60, has now increased to 77 students. “This has forced us to create two sections, which means we need that many more teachers to teach the students. It will definitely help organise teaching better in classes,” said SK Garg, principal, Deen Dyal Upadhayay College. Pratibha Jolly, principal of Miranda House is happy because the recruitment drive will maintain a healthy student-teacher ratio, “The permanent positions will help maintain a good teacher-student ratio and help students get individual attention.” Some of the principals have also said that their college will advertise the teacher's posts on a national level so that competent candidates from other states can also apply, “One is very sceptical about the kind of teachers that we will get if such a sudden expansion is done. In fact, I am planning to advertise the positions available in my college not only in Delhi but also at the national level this year,” said Savithri Singh, principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College.
