in government run secondary schools in the rural areas and the district towns has become a casualty due to acute shortage of teachers, as per a daily’s report. Non recruitment of new teachers for more than four years caused 50 per cent teaching vacancies in 140 schools in rural areas while at least 188 more schools based in the capital and the district towns are facing teacher shortage for years, causing a stumble in the education system. Such acute shortage of teachers in the secondary level schools will reduce the competence of the youth as the secondary level education inputs are vital knowledge and skills for higher education and for life also.Educationists fumed that students in rural areas are getting unfair treatment from the government which is a breach of the notion of equal facility for all. As the government did not recruit teachers at the government secondary schools since 2012, it affected the schools in the rural areas and the district towns rather than those in the capital. The government should immediately recruit new teachers to fill up the vacancies in the schools across the country as the students became the worst sufferers of such teacher shortage.Teacher shortage in rural areas becomes more acute due to the desperate acts of the teachers to get to the schools in the capital and metros where they could avail private coaching opportunities for extra earnings. Education Ministry officials said that it would not be possible to recruit new teachers for 328 government schools until the appointment rules were amended. The amendment of the recruitment rules became essential since the government upgraded the status of secondary school assistant teachers to Class II in 2012. Now only the Public Service Commission (PSC) is authorized to recruit secondary school teachers.At least 2.70 lakh students study in government schools in rural areas and district towns traditionally known for providing quality education. According to the Secondary and Higher Education Directorate vacancies occurred in 1,750 teaching posts out of 10,006. As the vacancies occurred three to six years back, serving teachers are required to take extra classes and it affects classroom teaching. Moreover, teacher shortage forces the school to often hold joint classes of sections which affects teaching quality.The government should solve the complexity over the recruiting authority — whether it is PSC or the Ministry. And then, recruit the teachers as early as possible to ensure proper knowledge dissemination.
