Agra: Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar in a meeting via video conference with authorities of 42 universities across India said on Wednesday that the central government is considering bringing back retired teachers not more than 75 years old and with "good teaching track record" to fill in the enormous number of vacancies in centrally funded institutions and universities.The minister, who confirmed to TOI the development, announced this while addressing officials of various universities and institutions. He said these retired teachers could be hired provided their teaching record is good and they are medically fit and that "they stick to academics, not getting into administration".Javadekar said the government was considering this in order to bring back good faculties, needed to streamline the process of education, and to tackle the backlog.During the video conference, he also suggested that good research scholars from reputed foreign universities, too, could be given teaching assignments in India. He directed all vice-chancellors to bring down vacancies to 10%.The minister assured all help from the government for this initiative and said it should be the quality of teaching that attracts more attendance in classrooms rather than just physical facilities.Aligarh Muslim University registrar Javed Akhtar, who was one of the participants in the discussion, told TOI that apart from representatives of 42 universities, MHRD secretary Kewal Kumar Sharma and additional secretary (central universities) SS Sandhu were also there for the discussions. Sandhu has asked the VCs to appraise him of issues that concern the UGC every first week of the month.Javadekar, incidentally, had recently announced a major recruitment drive across campuses as new central universities have 53.28% vacancies, followed by NITs with 47%.According to Akhtar, AMU alone has 20% vacancies, with 55 of the 195 sanctioned posts for professors lying vacant. Besides, posts for 110 associate professors and 160 assistant professors are vacant against the sanctioned strength of 390 and 1,040 respectively.Among central universities, the central university of Haryana, according to HRD records, is reeling under 75.11% vacancies as on April 1, 2017, while in the same period Delhi University recorded a total of 54.75% vacancies against permanent positions. University of Allahabad, too, has over 64% vacancies to be filled.

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