Ph.D. necessary for university-level recruitment from 2021: Javadekar
New Delhi, June 13: From 2021 onwards, only those with a Ph.D degree will be eligible to be recruited as teachers in central universities, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Wednesday.
The step was one of the many announced during a press meet.
As of now, those who have a Master’s degree and have passed the National Eligibility Test (NET) qualify to apply for the post of Assistant Professor in these universities. Those who have a Ph.D. are exempt from NET and are eligible to directly become Assistant Professor.
The decision, which will come into effect from July 2021, will however not be applicable to college teachers who will continue to become eligible for Assistant Professorship after clearing NET.
"From 2021 onwards, only Ph.Ds will be recruited in colleges," Javadekar told media here.
"There was a lacuna earlier in the recruitment rules, that Indians who have done Ph.D. from abroad were not considered eligible, but now those Indians who have done Ph.D. from top 500 institutes globally will also be eligible" he said announcing another change.
According to another decision, the ministry has done away with the Academic Point Indicator (API) system considered during the promotion of teachers at the college level. One of the requirements of the API system was that the teacher must conduct research in their field, on the basis of which their performance was rated for promotion.
"API based on PBAS (Performance Based Appraisal System) has been removed. There will not be compulsory research for the college teachers. They can do research, but they will not be forced to do it. It will not be mandatory. We want them to focus them on teaching," Javadekar said, adding that the move was taken to improve the standard of teaching at the undergraduate level.
The promotion now on will done on a different grading system which will involve components to rate teaching and student-involvement factors.
As per the new rating system, the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) by the faculty members will now be considered for the promotion.
"MOOCs are becoming increasingly popular. There are 1032 of them now on our SWAYAM platform. ... If teachers have MOOCs lecture, they will be given weightage in promotion," Javadekar said.
The decision again is not applicable to the university teachers for whom research will remain compulsory for promotion as per the API based PBAS extant.
The minister also said that the newly-recruited faculty from now on will have to go through a one-month induction programme "to ease them into college environment and learn the art of pedagogy".
In a first ever such move, he also announced creating the post of Professor at the college level, which until now had only posts of Assistant Professor and Associate Professor.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
