Mysuru:  Chamarajanagar MP R. Dhruvanarayan has urged the government to fill up the permanent posts of lecturers in colleges and Universities lying vacant in the State thus bringing down the student-teacher ratio.

He tabled this issue during the zero hour in the Parliament. An All India survey related to Higher Education has brought the fall in the number of lecturers in the country to light. There were 15.2 lakh permanent lecturers and the number has come down to 13.7 lakh.

In the Central Universities more than 35 per cent permanent lecturers’ posts are still vacant. Even though the temporary and guest lecturers have filled the gap still there is a shortage of 19 per cent, said Dhruvanarayan drawing attention to the serious problem facing the country.

In the Universities and colleges there is a big gap between the lecturer-student ratio and the highest found is 30 per cent. When compared to world average in 2015 it was 23.4:1, while in America this stood at 14:1, China 16.3:1, Brazil 20.9:1 and Russia 19.8:1. If the student strength is more than the lecturers then the latter cannot give individual attention to students. This will reflect in the quality of education being imparted, he noted.