Shortage of teaching staff to hit state-run schools in Telangana

HYDERABAD: With only less than 10 days to go for schools to reopen, shortage of teaching staff at government schools is causing a headache to authorities. There is a shortage of 3,000 teachers in about 26,000 government schools in the state, and over 6,000 teachers in zilla parishad schools, according to official sources.

“There have been no promotions in the education department since 2015. Why is the government ignoring the education sector? Students are already suffering and are at a loss due to lack of proper education during the Covid-19. The government is not even hiring more teachers. Students are missing classes as there are not enough teachers and are eventually losing interest in studies. We want the government to immediately promote teachers and hire new teachers for our students,” said Veera Chari, a government teacher in the city and president, Government Teachers Association.

A headmaster of a government school, C. Spandana, said primary school teachers were teaching secondary school students. “Teachers are preparing for subjects and teaching students the subjects so that they do not suffer. When will this stop? Even if teachers are promoted, there would hardly be any teachers left in the primary section. The government needs to hire teachers immediately, at least before we begin the next academic year,” she said.

Schools will reopen for teachers from June 1 and for students from June 13. Teachers are being called early to get more students enrolled in government schools, especially in the rural areas. “While we try our best to visit villages and get more students, I am worried about how the schools will manage the students as they need more teachers. Earlier, at least they were Vidya Volunteers present in school who used to make our job a little easy, as we had their support to manage in the absence of regular teachers. However, ever since Covid-19 broke out, Vidya Volunteers were not assigned, even though we requested the government to complete the syllabus, no action has been taken,” said a headmaster of a government school in the city.

“Let us not categorise the government and zilla parishad teachers who are yet to be hired. There are approximately 17,000 vacant posts of which, 9,000 are meant for direct recruitment and remaining are for promotions. There are over 1,04,000 regular teachers working in government schools in the state. Currently, we do not know anything about Vidya Volunteers, but once the TeT exams are conducted by June 12, soon notifications will be issued and the recruitment for government teachers will be conducted within six months,” said an official from the education department.