Govt admits financial crunch roadblock in recruitment to vacant teachers’ posts

As schools in the state continue to grapple with vacant posts for teachers the state government has admitted its inability to remove roadblocks in the way of learning for students citing a financial crunchThe education department had asked for recruitment of teachers to a whopping 67775 vacancies across the state But the state government on Saturday said that filling up such a huge number of vacant posts will put a massive financial burden on the state exchequerIn a letter dated September 21 to the commissioner of education and director of education secondary and higher secondary the government noted that ldquoout of the total expenditure of the state 18 per cent is spent on education wherein the largest chunk of the fund is spent on salaries The department has requested to fill up 67775 vacant teachersrsquo posts But filling up such a huge number will cause financial burden to the governmentrdquoAlso Read I will focus on implementing NEP says Mumbai University ProVC Dr Ajay BhamareOf the total 67755 vacant posts over 40000 posts are in Zilla Parishad and other governmentaided schools According to United District Information System for Education UDISE as of 202021 there are 110114 schools across the state and 767 lakh teachersSunil Shejule coordinator of Marathi Shala Sansthachalak Sangh and a member of Marathi Abhyaas Kendra alleged that the government is not doing enough to fill the gaps ldquoWe have contacted the school education department several times since 2012 but even after a decade there has been no resolutionrdquoMarred with irregularities and graft the school teachersrsquo appointment and approval process across Maharashtra has become a matter of concern for the state government for almost a decade now After May 2 2012 the government prohibited recruitment of teachers in primary intermediate and upper secondary institutionsIt has also conducted investigations into irregular recruitments but to no avail In a 2015 survey ldquoirregular recruitmentsrdquo were unearthed This was followed by the then state education commissioner declaring 32 illegal recruitments in Pune and 98 in Washim All these appointments were cancelled and salaries that had been drawn in the preceding three years were instructed to be returnedIn all the government identified 6000 cases of irregular teacher appointments in stateaided schools across Maharashtra undertaken after 2012 This led to a freeze on new teacher appointments in 2016The state government has recently sought information on the number of vacancies and teachers employed since 2015 in a circular issued to the education department Besides a list of schools in the state with only 020 students has also been sought