There are a million vacancies for teachers in government schools

In a press release, which was rolled out on Tuesday, the parliamentary panel recommended that these positions be filled in a “time-bound manner.”

“The committee recommends that the department should encourage the state governments to expedite the recruitment process to fill up the vacancies of teaching staff in a time-bound manner to achieve 30:1 pupil-teacher ratio as envisaged under New Education Policy, 2020,” read the statement.

It is worth noting that this report has been filed after examining the demands for grants by the Department of School Education and Literacy for the 2023-24 financial year.

The parliamentary panel, which is headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vivek Thakur, has also flagged the lack of transparency in the whole recruitment process of teachers.

While noting that the process of recruitment of teachers lacks transparency and is “cumbersome”, the parliamentary panel has advised that an “autonomous teacher recruitment board should be formed at the state level as recommended by some education committees.”

The parliamentary panel also wanted to ensure better utilisation of funds under the National-Means-cum-Merit scholarship scheme for students from economically weaker sections.

The Central government is expected to roll out its National Education Policy in the next 12 months. The new system will replace the 10+2+3 system (10 years of schooling; two years of secondary school; and three years of higher education) with the 5+3+3+4 system (five years of primary education; three years each of middle school and secondary education; and four years of higher education).

The Ministry of Education announced it at the first G20 Education Working Group meeting last month.