NCTE chairperson Pankaj Arora assumes additional charge of NIOS

NEW DELHI: The current chairperson of the National Council for Technical Education (NCTE), Pankaj Arora, took the additional charge as chairman of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) handed over the charge to Arora for six months, after the education ministry relieved the former chairman Saroj Sharma from the post.

“Professor Pankaj Arora, currently chairperson of NCTE took an additional charge as chairperson of NIOS. Under his wide and varied expertise in the field of education, NIOS will scale new heights. He chaired an introductory meeting with the officers and officials of NIOS,” the institute said in a post on X.

Following reports of Sharma’s removal, the institute recently clarified that she has not been removed by the centre but repatriated to her parent cadre upon her request. Though the professor had asked for premature repatriation to join the Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE) Gandhinagar as the vice-chancellor, she has been posted to her parent department in the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU).

Earlier this month, the Gujarat government cancelled her appointment as the VC of IITE. She was appointed on September 5 but was yet to take the charge.

The news of Saroj Sharma’s removal from NIOS chairman post came days after Delhi Police booked her in connection with the suicide of her driver Ram Kumar, an NIOS employee, who had allegedly accused her of caste-based discrimination and harassment and written to the education ministry.

(with inputs from PTI)