Nearly 20% of Assam school teacher posts vacant, over 30,000 sanctioned positions remain unfilled

Guwahati: Nearly 20 per cent of over 1.54 lakh permanent teacher posts in schools across Assam are lying vacant, the state assembly was informed on Thursday. In a written reply to a query by Leader of Opposition Wajed Ali Choudhury, School Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said a total of 30,032 sanctioned teaching posts are currently vacant, including 18,801 in primary schools. "Out of these vacant posts, 11,662 are in lower primary and 7,139 in upper primary schools," Pegu said.

In secondary and higher secondary schools, a total of 11,231 sanctioned teaching posts are lying vacant across the state, he added. Assam has a total of 1,54,078 sanctioned teacher posts across all levels of schools, Pegu said. On the steps taken to fill up these vacancies, the minister said the Assam government had announced that it would recruit two lakh youths in government jobs, and accordingly vacancy lists from schools are being prepared.

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"In the coming period, these vacant posts will be filled up," he added. In a separate query by Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Nazar, Pegu said there are 44,103 state-run schools in Assam, including 39,531 primary schools. "Out of these, 7,948 schools do not follow the mandatory 30:1 pupil-teacher ratio (PTR)," he added. Raising the issue of schools being run by a single teacher during the Question Hour, AIUDF MLA Badruddin Ajmal cautioned that this has resulted in low enrolment in recent years.

Replying to this, Pegu said, "Single-teacher schools are a big problem for us. We are trying not to make a school run by a single teacher. The PTR in Assam is good in the entire India scenario." To further strengthen the deployment of teachers, the government has adopted a three-pronged strategy -- regular recruitment, intra-district rationalisation and merger-amalgamation of schools that enhances the strength of teachers in an educational institute.