COIMBATORE: With the transfer counselling process completed, vacancies have come up for postgraduate (PG) teachers for classes 11 and 12 in government schools across the State. As per transfer counselling data, 263 posts are vacant for Mathematics, 285 for Chemistry, 320 for History, 400 for Economics, 501 for Commerce and 463 for Tamil (some districts have not yet released data).
Educators are urging the School Education department to complete the counselling by May to ensure studies of students in those classes are not affected. "We have urged the department to conduct transfer and promotional counselling every May to fill vacancies as students are struggling to prepare for exams without subject teachers," Tamil Nadu PG Teacher Association's V Michel said.
Counselling was skipped in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic and regular teachers have not been appointed at many schools, he added.
PG teacher K Arul* cited the example of schools recently upgraded to higher secondary such as in Kattampatty, Theethipalayam and Kavundampalayam. "Officials deputed teachers for a few Class 11 and 12 subjects but teachers are yet to be appointed for the remaining subjects through promotion counselling or direct recruitment," he said, adding that high school teachers are teaching higher secondary school students.
"The revised syllabus for these classes is tough. Without teachers for subjects like Chemistry and Physics, how can students learn? How can government school students crack competitive exams like NEET, JEE?" educationist K Leninbarathi asked.
A top education officer in Coimbatore district said, in November 2021, the department appointed temporary teachers for 2,774 PG posts in government schools across the State but not all vacancies were filled.
"Only 44 of 62 vacancies were filled in Coimbatore. We hope the department appoints regular teachers through TRB recruitment by end of this academic year after promotional counselling," she said. Senior department officials were unavailable for comment.
(*Name changed)