14,000 vacant posts of primary school teacher belie Punjab Govt claims

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, April 24

The government is making tall claims about providing the world-class education, the reality is that almost half of the schools are without heads.

It has been happening despite the fact that AAP had announced that after the formation of the government, not even a single school would be allowed to function without head.

Posts to be filled by year-end: Minister

• Education Minister Harjot Bains said by the end of this year, all posts of principal, lecturer and master cadre would be filled. In the last one year, 6,635 teachers had joined.
• A roadmap would be prepared for 10 years so that every year vacant posts are advertised. This will reduce the recruitment board burden.

700 posts of headmaster vacant

• By the end of 2024, 147 more posts of principal will fall vacant
• There are around 1,750 posts of headmaster and over 700 of them are lying vacant
• There are around 6,000 posts of head teacher and a large number of them are lying vacant
• In Moga, 45 posts of principals are vacant

As per the data compiled by the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF), Punjab, there are over 1,900 posts of principal in senior secondary schools of these 600 are vacant. By the end of 2024, 147 more posts of principal will fall vacant. Similarly, there are around 1,750 posts of headmaster and over 700 of them are vacant. The situation is even worse in primary school. Of the around 6,000 posts of head teacher, a large number of these are vacant.

The overall situation with the primary education seems even worse as around 14,000 posts of teacher are lying vacant. Most of the primary teachers hired on contract are working full-time on the vacant posts.

For instance in Moga district, there 87 posts of principal and out of them just 42 are filled, similarly there are 85 posts of headmaster and around 50 of them are vacant.

Digvijay Pal Sharma, President of the DTF, said it was the pre-election promise of AAP that they would fill the post of school head. It is the 14th month going on since the formation of the AAP government but the situation had failed to improve.