In a bid to reduce the shortage of faculty in medical colleges, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has decided to write to state medical education departments across the country, seeking their opinion about increasing the retirement age of teachersfrom 70 to 75 years.
The issue of retirement age came up in a meeting of the MCI in Delhi on Tuesday. As per the MCI norm, the retirement age of a medical teacher is 70 years. No state can exceed this bar. Maharashtra medical education department has set the retirement age as 64 years for teachers in all its state and civic-run medical colleges.
"Today's meeting proposed to increase the retirement age of a medical teacher to 75 years. But before a decision is taken in this regard, all the state medical education departments will be asked about their opinion," said Dr Kishor Taori, chairman, Teacher Eligibility and Qualification Committee, MCI.
"The aim to address the problem of some of medical colleges which are facing a shortage of teachers. Himachal Pradesh is the first state where the retirement age of teachers in private and government-run medical colleges has been fixed at 70 years."
According to MCI, in all 398 medical colleges across the country there are more than 52,000 MBBS seats. Retirement of teachers affects the number of seats to be maintained. Thus, in order to maintain an adequate ratio, state governments increase the retirement age.
"But this is not a solution to solve the manpower issue; we oppose this government decision. We have a different demand — temporary lecturers should be regularised and medical teachers should be given time-bound promotion and pay scale. If the government wants to appoint these teachers, they can appoint them after retirement. Increasing retirement age of teachers its not a good idea," said Dr Nagsen Ramraje, president, Maharashtra State Medical Teachers Association.
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