Teacher shortage: Govt to approach pvt schools for help

The Department of Primary and Secondary Education is planning to seek help from private unaided schools to tide over shortage of teachers at state-run schools.

Given that some schools are located at remote villages and border taluks of Kalyana Karnataka region, Education Minister S Suresh Kumar is toying with the idea of approaching the nearby private schools for sharing teaching resources.

The plan was mooted during the miister’s recent overnight stay at a government primary school in Pavagada taluk.

“Though we are managing by hiring guest teachers, it has become difficult to get even guest teachers for schools in some of the taluks. This is one of the major problem which I came across during my school stay in Pavagada taluk recently,” Suresh Kumar told DH.

He said that he would discuss the idea with the department officials and finalise a plan soon.

“Instead of letting children at government schools suffer without teachers, it is better to request teachers from nearby private schools help to take classes,” explained Suresh Kumar. The teachers so hired will be paid honorarium.

According to the data available with the department, the government schools in the state are short of 22,000 teachers during 2019-20. Yadgir educational district tops the list with 1,835 vacancies followed by Belagavi and Chikkodi with 1,796 and 1,793 vacancies respectively.

Suresh Kumar said that after his recent stay at a school, he had been getting requests from other parts of the state to take up such stay.