There are over two lakh teacher vacancies in secondary and higher secondary schools across States. Bihar and the newly formed Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir have the highest number of teacher vacancies.

Per data presented by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) to the Lok Sabha in July, secondary and higher secondary schools in India have 2,13,608 vacant teacher posts (as of 2018-19).

Bihar has 33,908 vacancies, followed by J&K (25,799), Arunachal Pradesh (21,393) and Madhya Pradesh (19,455).

Uttar Pradesh has 16,087 vacancies. Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Haryana are among the States with more than 10,000 vacant posts.

Out of the total sanctioned teacher posts nationwide, 23 per cent are vacant.

“The recruitment of teachers is a continuous process and the vacancies keep arising due to retirement and additional requirements on account of enhanced students’ strength,” the Ministry said in a written reply..

“Education is in the concurrent list. The recruitment, service conditions and deployment of teachers come under the purview of the concerned States/UTs,” it added. The Ministry said that it has been requesting all the States and UTs to fill up the vacant posts and deploy them rationally.

It added that the Centre, through the Samagra Shiksha scheme, provides assistance to the States and UTs for deployment of additional teachers to maintain a pupil-teacher ratio per the prescribed norms, and for the induction and in-service training of teachers.

Maharashtra, West Bengal, Lakshadweep and Mizoram have filled up all teacher posts, it was revealed.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala have over 4,000 vacancies each while Karnataka has 8,306. Delhi reported 6,832 vacancies.

World Bank study

Interestingly, a World Bank study titled ‘Getting the right teachers into the right schools: managing India’s teacher workforce’, released in 2017, had revealed that those who have been employed as teachers often don’t go to schools but appoint proxies who may not even have the basic qualifications to teach.