Over 8.4 lakh teaching vacancies in government schools: Education Ministry

NEW DELHI: There are over 8.4 lakh teaching vacancies at the elementary and secondary levels across government schools in India, the education ministry said in reply to a question in parliament on Monday. According to the ministry, currently there are 7.2 lakh teaching vacancies at the primary level and 1.2 lakh teaching vacancies at the secondary level.

This is a slight improvement from the Parliament Standing Committee report in March which flagged a total of 9.8 lakh teaching vacancies in government schools, including 7.4 lakh at the elementary level(Classes 1 to 8) and 1.6 lakh at the secondary level (Classes 9 and 10).

The three states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand account for more than half the total number of vacancies at primary and secondary levels.

Primary School Teacher Vacancy: Top 5 states

The same set of five states occupy the top positions for having the most teaching vacancies at the secondary level.

Secondary School Teacher Vacancy: Top 5 states

Bihar, which had announced a large-scale teacher recruitment drive in October, added more than 10,000 vacancies compared to last year to have over 2.25 lakh teaching vacancies across government schools.

Zero teacher vacancy

Maharashtra seems to have influenced the stark reduction in vacancies as it reported having zero teacher vacancies at the primary level in 2023-24 despite having more than 18,000 teaching vacancies in 2022-23.

Odisha also reported zero teaching vacancies at the secondary level in 2023-24 despite having more than 15,000 teaching vacancies in 2022-23. Odisha had already reported zero vacancies at the primary level last year.

According to the report, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Odisha have reported zero vacancies at the primary level. Five states – Kerala, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha and Sikkim – also reported zero vacancies at the secondary level.