HRD faces ire of Parl panel over shortage of teachers

New Delhi: In a major setback, the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Human Resource Development (HRD) has slammed the ministry for not completing the recruitment process of teachers.

According to the findings of the report, which was tabled in both the Houses of the Parliament, the department has managed to appoint only 69,000 teachers in the last five years against the total vacancy of 3.74 lakh.

Raising doubts over the HRD's response on pupil-teacher ratio (PTR), the House panel said, "The Committee failed to understand the clarification provided by the department that as per the Unified District Information System for Education 2015-16 (provisional), the PTR at the national level for elementary schools was 24:1 and in most of the states and UTs it was found to be satisfactory, while on the other hand, the country is witnessing a shortage of 3.74 lakh teachers."

Expressing its anguish, the Committee in the report said, "It's very sad to note that states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam and Punjab are clearly lagging behind in maintaining its teachers' workforce. It indicates that the HRD Ministry as well concerned states have not done enough to address teachers' shortage issue."

The panel has recommended the HRD Ministry to take immediate steps by giving specific targets to states to fill up the vacancies by this year itself and submit a compliance report to the Committee.

Taking on the ministry for not achieving the target of completing construction work of 101 new school buildings of Kendriya Vidyalayas, the Panel said, "In the last year, the department has been able to add only 21 new school buildings against the total target of 101 new school buildings of KVs, which shows lack of concern of the department."

"A year ago, 711 KVs were functioning from a permanent building which rose to 732 after one year. Since the achievement is quite poor, it's recommended to streamline its functioning and ensuring that concerned agencies deliver on time," the report said. The Committee has directed the HRD Ministry to complete the construction of all 101 new buildings by the end of this year.