E-Paper
Acute shortage of teachers ailing govt primary, upper primary schools in UP
As per data of basic education department, in 1,13,289 government-run primary and 45,625 upper primary schools of UP 72,712 posts of assistant teachers are lying vacant
Government-run primary and upper primary schools of Uttar Pradesh are reeling under acute shortage of teachers, said two senior officials of state education department citing official records.
As per the data of basic education department, in the 1,13,289 government-run primary and 45,625 upper primary schools of the state a total of 72,712 posts of assistant teachers are lying vacant. These vacant posts, include 63,261 in upper primary schools and 9,451 in primary schools.
This is the situation when during the past three years, recruitment drives for filling up 68,500 and 69,000 vacant posts of assistant teachers has improved the situation somewhat from the past, a senior state education department official, who is in the know of things, said on condition of anonymity.
A whopping 51,112 posts of teachers are lying vacant in rural upper primary schools as on June 2021 — a fact which the state government itself has accepted in the Supreme Court in June 2020. The remaining 12,149 vacant posts are in schools located in urban areas.
For urban areas, teachers are not directly appointed against these posts and teachers in rural areas are transferred here, the official further said.
Out of the total 13,653 posts of assistant teachers in urban primary and upper primary schools, at present mere 1,524 posts are filled while the remaining 12,128 are lying vacant.
“This is due to the fact that after 2011, transfers of teachers from rural to urban areas have not taken place and each year a large number of teachers retire bringing the count of teachers down further,” said the second official pleading anonymity.
What’ more, a large number of posts of principals in these schools are also lying vacant.
Presently, as many as 53,778 posts of principals are lying vacant at these schools in both the rural and urban areas, the official said citing basic education department records.
“The failure of the government to fill up the existing vacant posts of teachers is sad and an injustice to students enrolled in these institutions. Unless teachers are recruited, the idea of imparting education as per the RTE Act-2009 norms will continue to remain a distant dream,” said Suresh Kumar Tripathi, Teacher MLC (Allahabad-Jhansi Division).
Prayagraj district president of Prathmik Shikshak Sangh Devendra Kumar Srivastava said his association had been constantly being demanding that vacant posts of teachers in both rural and urban primary and upper primary schools be filled urgently.
“This is needed not just for ensuring quality teaching but also balancing the workload of the existing teachers,” he added.
