Karnataka govt schools face acute shortage of teachers

Government schools across the state are facing severe shortage of teachers at all levels. In several schools, lack of teachers for some subjects has left the available teachers struggling to run the show.

According to data available from the department, more than 41,000 teachers posts are vacant at government primary and high schools.

The highest number of vacancies are at the primary schools with 25,813 posts remaining vacant as against the 1,88,540 sanctioned posts. The vacancy is 15,907 in high schools against the 52,630 sanctioned posts.

Though the state government agreed to fill 5,000 posts at primary schools this year, the schools have to depend on guest teachers for the rest. A senior official from the department of public instruction told DH, “This is the situation every year. At the local level, the authorities have been given a free hand to hire guest teachers.”

“We have even submitted a proposal to the government seeking permission to recruit 5,500 teachers for the high schools. The proposal is before the Finance department. Hopefully, we will get permission to fill the vacant posts,” the official explained.

Speaking about the difficulties, a teacher, working with a high school at Bengaluru Rural, said, “I have to handle at least three classes as there are only two teachers in the school and this is really stressful.”

H K Manjunath, president of the Karnataka state government secondary schools assistant masters association, said, “Every year, we are facing shortage of teachers, but this year we are feeling the heat as the number of enrollment at government schools has increased. We have requested the government to retain the teachers who retire in the middle of the academic year and also to expedite the recruitment process.”

Manjunath said the process to hire guest teachers was hit badly at some districts due to technical issues. “We request the department to hire guest teachers immediately,” he added.

Watch latest videos by DH here: