BARIPADA: Residential schools operating under the ST and SC Development (SSD) department in Mayurbhanj are affected due to large-scale teacher vacancies.
At least 293 regular and 369 contractual posts are currently lying vacant.
The acute shortage has pushed student-teacher ratio to 46-50 per teacher against the Right to Education (RTE) Act norms of 30:1 and 35:1 with concerns for dropout rate which could further weaken the tribal education system is being raised.
According to District Welfare department data, maximum vacancies are reported in Matric CT posts (206), TGT Arts (16), physical education teacher (16) and Hindi teacher (10). Apart from these, 369 contractual positions remain vacant including LCCA/CCA (286) and education assistants (34).
As per official report, 167 residential schools and 13 Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) operate with 50,279 students in the district. Out of 1,326 sanctioned teacher posts, 293 remain vacant.
Currently, 47,629 students study in Ashram/SSD schools and 2,650 in EMRS, with only 1,033 regular teachers and 1,581 contractual staff available.
Expressing concern over the situation, a parent said children go to school but since there are no teachers, proper teaching is not delivered which is an obstruction to produce a quality student from the residential schools.
“Not only me but other teachers are also forced to handle 50-60 students single-handedly which makes it impossible to provide quality education especially in science and mathematics,” said a senior teacher.
Speaking to TNIE, district welfare officer, Gurucharan Mallik assured steps are being taken to fill vacancies and recruitment processes are underway. “The district administration has also informed the state government through the collector about urgency to fill up remaining posts,” he added.