In Uttar Pradesh’s government inter-colleges (GICs), which serve students in classes 6 through 12, less than half the necessary number of teachers are working. According to state government data, 9,787 teaching positions—or 51%—of the sanctioned positions totalling 18,919 in the state’s 898 GICs established in 75 districts are unfilled. In the primary education department-managed government schools that serve Classes 1 through 8, there are more than 63,000 open teaching positions compared to the 5,808,084 authorised positions.
Gulab Devi, the minister of secondary education, and Sandeep Singh, the minister of primary education, both presented data on open teaching positions on September 20 during the ongoing monsoon session of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly.
Teachers’ Vacancy in UP
Devi informed the legislative assembly in a written response to a query by Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Mohd Faheem Irfan that 9,132 teachers are now employed, as opposed to the 18,919 sanctioned positions. According to Devi, hiring teachers is a never-ending process. The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission has provided the list of chosen applicants (UPPSC). She stated that the posting of the candidate was being done online.
In response to a query from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA Prasanna Kumar, Singh informed the legislative body that, in contrast to the 5,808,084 authorised posts, a total of 51,112 school teacher positions remain unfilled in rural UP and 12,149 in urban regions. After the Supreme Court on July 27, 2017, revoked the appointment of 1,37,517 qualified Shiksha Mitras (Adhoc primary teachers) as assistant teachers in schools run by the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Council, Singh claimed that the UP government began hiring teachers in government schools in two phases. According to him, the first step of hiring 68,500 assistant teachers is complete. Due to multiple appeals submitted in the Allahabad High Court, the recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers in the second phase is still delayed.
School infrastructure
UP Minister Singh stated before the legislative assembly that the administration is “gathering information” to determine whether or not the task of providing pupils with clean drinking water has been finished. Additionally, he stated that there are “no preparations” for using computers to complete schoolwork. Only 17,987 of the 87,271 government primary schools in the state that are managed by the Basic Education Council have benches and desks for the pupils, according to Singh, who was responding to a question in the legislative assembly. This indicates that 69,284 primary schools in Uttar Pradesh are operating without adequate student seating.
The presence of a budget determines whether benches and desks are available in government-run primary schools, according to Singh. Uttar Pradesh’s finance minister, Suresh Khanna, included funding for the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in the state budget of Rs 6,15,518.97 billion for the fiscal year 2022–2023. Government schools’ infrastructure improvement and construction have been allocated Rs 836.80 crore under this programme.
