Despite the State Government claiming to have taken steps to improve education in Uttarakhand, many posts of teachers and principals in Government inter colleges and high schools are lying vacant in the seven districts of Garhwal region especially in the remote mountainous regions.
According to official data, 1,987 posts of lT grade and 1,486 posts of lecturer grade are vacant in the seven districts of Garhwal. Additional Director, Education, Garhwal region, Narendra Singh Rana said that there are 574 boys and 46 girls Government Inter Colleges along with 483 boys and 59 girls High Schools in the Garhwal region.
Out of the 9,602 sanctioned posts of lT grade teachers in the Government boys high schools, 1,801 posts are lying vacant while 186 lT grade posts are vacant in the Government girls high schools in the region.
Out of the 5,691 sanctioned posts of lecturers, 1,486 posts are vacant. Rana said that teachers have been transferred only in mandatory and acutely ill categories.
In the mandatory category, the teachers who had spent decades in accessible or inaccessible area schools were transferred while eight lT grade teachers and six lecturers, who did not join the post they were transferred to were suspended.
The transfers on request due to teachers suffering from acute illness were verified by the Chief Medical Officer Pauri. Only the teachers suffering from acute illnesses like blood cancer, HIV, acute arthritis etc can be transferred under this category according to Government norms and many applications were rejected on the recommendation of the CMO.
In the Pauri district, 386 male and 52 female teachers’ posts in lT grade along with 230 male and 12 female lecturers’ posts are vacant in Government inter colleges. District Education Officer Hari Ram Yadav said that 14 schools are being run under the National Secondary Education Scheme in the Pauri district. Eleven of such schools are being managed by one or two teachers. Yadav said that out of the 161 sanctioned posts in inter colleges, 60 are working as principals and 60 are working as headmistresses out of 131 sanctioned posts in high schools.
No posts of teachers have been created at the schools upgraded at Rishti, Sonth and Baganikhal in 2011 while on the other hand no lecturer posts have been created in the boys inter college Muchayali, Chopra and in girls inter college Thalnadi. He said that only seven block education officers are working in the 15 blocks of the district with arrangements being made for the remaining blocks.