Bhubaneswar: The state government, Wednesday, admitted before the State Legislative Assembly that it has more than 35,000 posts of elementary high school teachers under different categories are still lying vacant.
In a statement laid before the Assembly, Odisha Minister of School and Mass Education Sameer Ranjan Das gave out the statistics of the total sanctioned posts, filled posts and the massive vacant posts in the state schools. His data hinted at mammoth vacancies of teachers in the state.
According to the reply by the minister the total sanctioned posts in the state for elementary education under Level-III, Level-IV and Level-V stood at 1,35,656 while the total vacant posts stood at 27,040. This indicated that a total of 1,08,616 posts are still working in full strength in the state affecting the overall primary education in the state.
The highest vacancy was in the Level V category which stood at 10,051. An analysis of the same hinted that 20 per cent of such posts in elementary teacher’s level are lying vacant in the elementary schools in the state.
The minister however said that special steps have been taken to tackle the vacancy situation. He said, “Recently the vacancies in Level V posts of elementary cadre have been filled up by regularising the eligible position of different teachers in government high schools.”
The same data also hinted that the state is also grappling with the massive vacancy of 8,515 teachers in the government high schools as per the own admission of the state government. In the statement as furnished by the minister, the highest vacancy in high schools was reported from the Arts section where a total of 2779 vacant posts still exist.
On the other hand other subjects where there are major vacancies included Hindi (1812 teachers), Physical Education Training (1165) followed by Sanskrit which reported vacancy of 1069 teachers.
The minister however said that cadre of elementary teachers and officers has been reconstructed and steps are being taken to fill up the vacancy. He said that promotion of eligible teachers from feeder grade is done to overcome this. “In High schools the vacant posts of teachers are being filled up by way of engagement of contract teachers. There is no proposal of privatisation of primary education,” the minister said.