The State Government has accepted in the State Assembly that there are 748 school buildings in the State which are lying vacant in absence of students.
Pauri district with 180 such buildings leads the table while in Almora district the number of such buildings is 110.
In response to a question by Salt MLA Surender Singh Jeena, the Education Minister Arvind Pandey said that a process to transfer these buildings to the village Panchayats concerned has been initiated. He said that the village Panchayats would be responsible for upkeep of these buildings.
The Minister also stated in the assembly that 4,383 posts of lecturers out of total sanctioned 12,381 posts are lying vacant.
Similarly, 2,964 posts of primary teachers, 408 posts of headmasters and 501 posts of principals are vacant in the education department. While replying a question by Dhanolti MLA Pritam Singh Panwar, the Education minister said that a recruitment requisition for 917 posts of lecturers has been sent to State Public Service Commission. Apart from that, an examination to fill 1,214 posts of Lecturer Teacher (LT) was held in the month of January.
The Minister also told the house that the Government has also appointed 2,683 lecturers as guest teachers and 1,683 assistant teachers as guest teachers.
In response to a question by Jhabreda MLA Deshraj Karnwal, the education minister conceded that Rs400 which is provided to the students belonging to SC, ST and economically backward categories for school uniforms is less. Karnwal said that Rs400 provided to the students to purchase two pair of uniforms is too meagre and it should be increased.
In an important declaration, the Minister said that all district magistrates have been directed that apart from census and election the teachers should not be deployed in other duties so as to prevent disturbing the academic activities in the schools.
The Minister of state for higher education Dhan Singh Rawat said that there are 1,562 students in 17 self financed BEd colleges in the State.
The Ranikhet MLA Karan Mahara tried to put the government on the dock by pointing towards huge disparity in the fee structure of state financed and self financed institutes in the state.
The Minister replied that lack of resources and less number of students has ensured higher fees structure in self financed courses.