Chandigarh government schools facing teacher shortage

With over 1,200 teaching posts lying vacant, government schools in the city continue to face staff shortage because of which the quality of education provided in these schools is deteriorating.

With over 1,200 teaching posts lying vacant, government schools in the city continue to face staff shortage because of which the quality of education provided in these schools is deteriorating.

President of the UT Cadre Educational Employees Union Swarn Singh Kamboj, said, “Students are suffering a lot due to the limited number of teachers. In some schools, Junior Basic Teachers (JBT) are teaching senior classes which has hampered the quality of education. Each time officers are approached with the problem they give empty-promises which are never fulfilled.” He added that over 10 posts of principals were lying vacant for months but the officials chose to turn a blind eye to the issue.

“There are no principals in Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS) Sectors 45, 28 and 56. The education department has failed to appoint any principal at GSSS, Sector 35, where the post has been vacant since October last year. The department has overlooked many senior lecturers, who are on the verge of retirement, but have been denied their due promotion,” said Kamboj.

Requesting anonymity, a member of Government High School, Sarangpur’s staff claimed that the teachers there had not received their salaries for June as the administration had failed to handover the post of DDO (Drawing Dispersing Officer) to any of the staff members after the school’s headmaster had retired.

“We have been voicing our concern to the officials but no one has been appointed at the vacant post and thus teachers have not got their salaries”, the staff member said.

A senior official said around 1,100 teachers would soon be recruited to meet the staff shortage in government schools.

At present, government schools have a total of 1,200 teachers under the SSA, 150 contract teachers, 350 guest teachers and 3,000 teachers on regular posts.