Imphal: Manipur Education minister Th Basanta Kumar on Sunday said that the Education department has started taking up steps to rationalise teachers of government-run schools.
Various students’ bodies have been demanding posting of adequate numbers of teachers in government-run schools wherever there is a good number of students.
The students’ bodies alleged that even as there is shortage of teachers in many schools with large numbers of students, a good number of teachers are posted in the schools having few or no students.
Addressing a press conference, the Education minister announced that the rationalisation will be completed by October 31, 2022 while urging students’ bodies to give some time for posting of teachers in the schools wherever there is a shortfall in teachers’ strength.
The minister admitted that there is a shortage in the number of teachers in the state education department due to non-recruitment for a long time.
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However, as an interim arrangement, the state education (s) department has taken up the step of rationalisation of teachers.
The Education department has directed concerned district education offices to submit reports regarding the strength of teachers in each school in their respective districts.
Once there is complete reports, rationalization of teachers will be taken up, he said while assuring completion of the process by October 31, 2022.
The minister added that the rationalisation is to be done to send more teachers to the schools where there are large numbers of students.
However, he added, this will not be a long lasting solution but it is an interim arrangement. The Education minister then said that there are altogether 1,884 government-run schools under the Education (School) department and the required number of teaching and non-teaching staff is 17,597 while the present strength of the staff is 10,562.
A total posts of 6,945 teaching staff and 235 non-teaching staff are lying vacant. He said that the shortage of teachers and poor infrastructures in government-run schools are not a recent issue but a long unsolved issue.
As it is a long pending issue, it will not be possible to solve the issue immediately. It will take time, he further said.
The Education department has not conducted recruitment to appoint teaching and non-teaching staff for the last around 10 years even as staff are retiring each year, he added.
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