Over 16,500 teachers found absent from UP govt schools, reveals inspection survey

NEW DELHI: In an inspection carried out by three different task forces in the last three months, more than 16,500 government teachers were found absent at Uttar Pradesh’s basic education department-run schools. The inspection was carried out in all 75 districts of the state by district-level task forces, block level task forces and a task force constituted by the basic education department. Inspection drives were aimed at checking the presence of teachers in government schools imparting education from Class 1 to 8.

The state government has asked each person from the 12-members team of district-level task forces and eight members team of team of block-level task forces to inspect five schools. The District Education Officers (DEOs) of each district have been asked to check 20 schools and Block Education Officers (BEOs) have been asked to check 40 schools.

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In a letter to chief development officers of all districts, director general school education Vijay Kiran Anand on March 11, 2023 informed that the task forces could inspect 3,31,113 schools out of targetted 3,92,252 schools – 84% and found 16,706 teachers were absent during the inspection period of three months. Maximum 6,467 teachers were found absent in February 2023

UP Schools: Details of inspection drives

*Schools left in December 2022 were inspected in January 2023.

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Among the districts, 482 teachers were found absent in Hardoi followed by 461 absent teachers in Sitapur and 459 in Bahraich.

To achieve 100% inspection of all targeted schools, Anand has instructed the officials to ensure visiting to all the schools every month, fix responsibility of absentee teachers, review students attendance and track progress in schools under Operation Kayakalp.