Chennai, Jun 23 (PTI) PMK leader and former union minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday expressed concern over the 18,107 vacant teacher posts in Tamil Nadu’s School Education Department, warning that leaving nearly 16 per cent of such positions unfilled will severely cripple the quality of education for underprivileged children.
“According to statistics released by the School Education Department, the total sanctioned strength of teacher posts stands at 1,14,248. As of the last working day of May, 96,141 teachers were in service, leaving 18,107 positions vacant. Of these, 7,252 are graduate teacher posts, 2,833 are post graduate teacher posts, and the remaining are secondary grade teacher posts”, he said in a statement.
“The primary reason behind the day-by-day decline in the standard of government schools in Tamil Nadu is the failure to recruit adequate teachers”, he alleged.
In the 12 years since the 2013-14 academic year, the government has recruited a mere 3,192 graduate teachers and 2,768 secondary grade teachers for both departments combined and this translates to a “dismal average” of just 496 new secondary grade and graduate teacher recruitments per year, he said.
Stating that around two lakh teachers are currently employed in government schools, Anbumani said on an average, 5,000 to 6,000 teachers retire every year, while an estimated 70,000 teachers would have retired over the last 12 years. “The government has recruited only 17,380 teachers”.
Pointing out that the government schools are the true engines of social change and progress he said that to achieve that singular goal, the public school system must remain robust. “Therefore, the Government of Tamil Nadu must take immediate steps to fill all vacant teacher positions in government schools and proactively boost student enrollment”. PTI SNR SNR SA
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.