Good news for wannabe lecturers. In order to attract talents to the higher education sector, the State Government has decided to hike the upper age limit for recruitment of Junior lecturers of colleges from 32 to 40 years.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has recently approved a proposal of the Department of Higher Education (DoHE) to this effect, said official sources. This is expected to encourage meritorious candidates, who are working elsewhere due to their age bar, to join Government-run colleges.
The Government has not recruited Junior lecturers for its colleges since 1989, for which the colleges have been facing dearth of lecturers and students are not suffering in their studies.The DoHE has decided to lift the freeze on recruitment of Junior lecturers after 25 long years.
The department has requested the Odisha Public Service commission (OPSC) to begin the process of filling up of 281 posts of Junior lecturers. It has also been decided to fill up 800 posts through ad-hoc appointments by the Government.
In another move, the DoHE has decided to allow recruitment of the candidates having PhDs before the 2009 notification of the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.
As the UGC has changed the regulation for MPhil and PhD after 2009, many candidates were debarred from participating in the recruitment process.
Candidates having PhD before 2009 or qualified in the National Eligibility Test (NET) would be allowed to participate in the recruitment process for Junior lecturers, said the sources.
With this major policy change, more and more brilliant candidates working in various parts of the State and country in different institutions are expected to participate in the competition for Junior lecturers.
This policy shift would be approved by the State Cabinet soon, following which the recruitment process, kept in abeyance for some time, would start, the sources said.