487 Haryana primary schools have no teacher, 294 without students

A rationalisation exercise carried out by the Haryana Elementary Education Department has revealed that 487 government primary schools in the state are operating without a single teacher while 294 schools have no student enrolled during the current academic session.

The data indicates that even after reallocation of teaching posts, there is a tentative shortage of 2,262 teachers in government primary schools. The student-teacher ratio stands at approximately 28:1, with 7,18,964 students enrolled in 8,185 government schools having 25,762 teachers.

However, the government has cut down on 5,313 teaching posts in the rationalisation exercise for primary schools. The total number of teaching posts has been brought down from 37,487 to 32,174. A senior official, however, clarified that these posts had not been abolished but had merely been rationalised for more effective allocation in the next academic session.

Yamunanagar has the highest number of schools without a teacher (79) followed by Panchkula (45) and Kurukshetra (34). Similarly, Yamunanagar has the highest number of schools without a student (32), followed by Ambala (22) and Hisar (17).

As many as 1,095 schools in the state have less than 20 students, with Yamunanagar (132) again on top followed by Panchkula (64) and Karnal (62). Interestingly, Panchkula is the only district which has 88 surplus posts of teacher.

Hariom Rathi, state president of the Haryana Primary Adhyapak Sangh, has urged the government not to abolish the rationalised posts.