Over 50 per cent of the high schools are running without a headmaster in Odisha.
The huge vacancy of head poses as a big challenge to the quality education system at the high school level.
The latest statistics released by the Union Government this month brings the fact to the fore. Similarly, headmasters are not available in 70 per cent high schools in Bihar, Jharkhand (9 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (50 per cent), Maharashtra (52 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (63 per cent).
There are headmasters in all the high schools in States like Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Manipur, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Union Territories of lakshadweep and Chandigarh.
Out of 5,185 sanctioned headmasters in Odisha, 2,598 posts are lying vacant. In terms of this, Odisha is lagging behind other States like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Rajasthan, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir.
According to official report, there are 31,760 sanctioned high school teacher posts in the State, out of which 6,320 posts are lying vacant. In short, total 19.89 per cent high school teacher posts are vacant in the State.
However, the percentage is far worse in the States like Jharkhand (71.73 per cent), Gujarat (30.23 per cent), Bihar (36.09 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (50 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (28.98 per cent).
While the teacher posts have been filled in all the high schools in small States like Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim, just a few posts are vacant in West Bengal, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, Manipur, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Assam and Andhra Pradesh.