Meghalaya has over 1200 vacant govt teacher posts: Education minister  

There are 1,219 vacant posts for government teachers and 420 vacancies under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) in Meghalaya, education minister Rakkam A Sangma informed the House on Tuesday.

There are 102 vacancies for lower primary teachers, 292 vacancies for upper primary teachers and 26 vacancies in the secondary category under the SSA, Sangma said. Similarly, for government teachers, there are 1,002 teachers in the lower primary category, 41 in the upper primary, 125 in the secondary category and 51 in the higher secondary category.

The education minister was responding to a query raised by Charles Marngar, the Congress MLA from the Mawhati constituency, on the last day of the Budget Session.

“There are several temporary teachers in govt secondary and higher secondary but for Lower Primary government schools, except Dadengre sub-division, we have not engaged any temporary requirement for the last two years. As a temporary arrangement due to complexities till a proper recruitment process is completed, the government has decided to send temporary teachers to 1,200 schools immediately,” informed Sangma.

Sangma also pointed out that for SSA, several schools have a low rate of enrolment. About 903 schools have less than 20 students, 45 lower primary schools have single-digit enrollment, and 62 schools in the upper primary schools have a single-digit enrollment of students. Several schools have zero enrollment, the education minister added.

“Regarding the government LP school teachers, it is due to a Court order about implementing a roster system, so the recruitment process has been delayed,” said Sangma.

Marngar urged the government to speed up the recruitment process for schools with high student enrollment.

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