12,000 PGT posts vacant in Haryana

Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Hisar, December 2

About 12,048 posts of postgraduate teachers (PGTs) for 20 subjects, including mathematics, English, science, are vacant in 2,423 secondary and senior secondary schools of Haryana. The state has around 39,000 sanctioned posts of PGTs for teaching students of classes IX to XII.

Due to staff shortage, many teachers have been entrusted with the responsibility of teaching additional subjects. This not only puts extra burden on the teachers concerned, but also compromises the quality of education.

Experts say while the increase in student enrollment has been satisfactory, it’s time to focus on quality education. “To improve academic standards and infrastructure, the government must ensure that the vacancies of teachers are filled at the earliest. Temporary arrangements will not do. Teachers must also be relieved of non-teaching work,” said retired District Education Officer (DEO) Devender Singh. 

As per data obtained from the Education Department, there are 1,985 vacancies of mathematics teachers, 1,574 for computer science and 1,217 for English. Similarly, 653, 209 and 174 vacancies exist for teaching physics, chemistry and biology, respectively. Haryana School Lecturer Association president Bhagwan Dutt said despite an assurance by the government, non-teaching work was still being assigned to teachers.

“In fact, non-teaching work gets more priority due to pressure from the government. Frequent transfer of senior officials, such as Financial Commissioner and Director, also affects the functioning adversely. In five years, the two key posts saw seven transfers,” Dutt said.