Teacher shortage: Stopgap is no solution

Faced with a severe shortage of teachers, the Karnataka education department has announced the recruitment of 51,000 guest teachers – the highest-ever – for the 2025-26 academic year. On the surface, this appears to be a welcome and urgent response to a long-standing crisis. However, the sheer scale of this measure raises troubling questions about the government’s planning, priorities, and commitment to quality education. Why did we arrive at a situation where over 50,000 positions were left vacant in the first place? This decision, while necessary in the short-term, is a glaring example of systemic failure. Temporary appointments may offer a band-aid solution, but they expose deeper wounds of administrative neglect.

These guest teachers will remain in service only until permanent staff are recruited or until the end of the academic year. But what happens to them after that? Many choose government schools over better-paying private institutions, holding hope that temporary service may lead to permanent employment. Unfortunately, history offers little reassurance. Guest teachers in government institutions served for years, only to be discarded when permanent posts were filled. Many were deemed under-qualified, while others, having dedicated over a decade to teaching, found themselves age-barred from securing alternative employment. The human cost of such ad-hoc policies is immense, both for the teachers and the students who rely on them. The government claims that permanent recruitment will begin once internal reservation for the SC category is resolved. But must we wait? Recruitment should be a continuous, streamlined process, not a reactionary measure when vacancies reach crisis levels. Education is too important to be held hostage by administrative inertia and political indecision.

The data paints a grim picture. In Kalyana Karnataka alone, there are 20,875 teaching vacancies. Unsurprisingly, the region lags in SSLC results with Kalaburagi recording a dismal 42.43% pass rate. Government schools across the state fared poorly, with a pass percentage of 62.7%, compared to the Karnataka Residential Educational Institutions Society (KREIS) schools run by the Social Welfare Department for marginalised students, which achieved an impressive 91%. Primary and secondary education forms the bedrock of a child’s future. If Karnataka is serious about securing the prospects of its students, it must move beyond stopgap solutions. Appointing permanent qualified teachers – not temporary fixes – is the only way forward. The state must act decisively, expedite recruitment, invest in teacher training, and ensure stability in schools. Children deserve more than a patchwork education system; they deserve a future built on certainty, not contingency.