Central govt asks Chandigarh admn to fill vacant teaching posts on priority

As per the Union ministry of education, there are 996 vacant posts at elementary level and 274 vacant posts at secondary level at the govt schools in Chandigarh

rh The Union ministry of education has directed the UT education department to fill vacant posts of teachers and head teachers at government schools.

A proposal to fill 250 posts of trained graduate teachers has been sent to the department of personnel for approval and will also be advertised shortly, the Chandigarh administration told the Centre. (Representative image)

The directions were issued at the Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting of the Samagra Shiksha Scheme held in April under the chairmanship of secretary, department of school education and literacy, Union ministry of education.

As per the minutes of the meeting, which were released recently, the ministry said that there are 996 vacant posts at elementary level and 274 vacant posts at secondary level government schools in the city.

UT officials who were present at the meeting included education secretary Purva Garg, the then director of school education Palika Arora and district education officer (DEO) Prabhjot Kaur.

In their response to the ministry, UT said that a proposal to fill 601 posts of elementary teachers has already been approved by the administration and details are being finalised with the recruitment agency, NITTTR, and advertisements will be issued shortly.

Similarly, a proposal to fill 250 posts of trained graduate teachers has been sent to the department of personnel for approval and will also be advertised shortly.

Posts of headmasters under promotion quota have already been filled and for vacant posts under deputation quota, the sister states have already been requested to send a panel.

The ministry further observed that 93.5% secondary schools have teachers for all core subjects and schools with adverse pupil teacher ratio at the upper primary level has dipped to 7.69%

The vacancy of academic positions at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) was also highlighted, which is at 91.11%, with only four faculties in position. The Centre said that these vacant posts need to be filled on priority, as it is directly impacts the performance grading index of the city.

Drop-out rate dips

The UT education department spoke about how the drop-out rate for schools has improved significantly. It has gone down to 0% at elementary as well as secondary level. At the senior secondary level, it has improved from 12.39% to 4.45% in one year.