CHENNAI: CAG report for the year ending 2022 has found “serious lapses” in the functioning of government secondary and higher secondary schools. Quality of education was affected by inadequate budgetary allocation, delay in recruitment of teachers and shortfall in sanctioned posts.
The audit conducted from 2016 to 2021 found funding for secondary and higher secondary education coming down from 0.94 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s GSDP in 2016-17 to 0.85 per cent in 2020-21. There are 3,685 secondary and 4,339 higher secondary schools in the state. There is a vacancy of 18,862 teachers against sanctioned posts, but the requirement is much more than sanctioned strength.
“Need-based assessment of requirement of teachers in nine sampled districts was 19,751 against the actual sanctioned strength of 17,855. Thus, the need-based actual requirement was 10.62 per cent more than sanctioned posts. Considering the estimated shortfall in sanctioned posts with reference to the need and vacancy, the person in position fell short of need by 31,490,” CAG said.