Addressing the shortage of teaching staff at primary schools falling under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), Samagra Shiksha-Delhi has announced the engagement of 586 schoolteachers, on a contractual basis, under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The move comes after Mayor Mukesh Suryan wrote a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, stating that there was a “shortfall of 600 teachers”, which were to be “urgently filled with contractual teachers as a temporary measure”.
Mr. Suryan said that these teachers had been serving at SDMC schools “since 2001” and “could not be engaged during the pandemic period”. “These teachers are now under the SSA and they will have a regular renewal of their contracts, unlike previous instances where they had to wait and do multiple follow-ups,” he said in the letter.
Currently, there are close to three lakh students studying in SDMC schools.
Bigger issues
Reacting to the decision, some heads of SDMC schools said that they faced “bigger issues” and that the move “would make no difference” to their situation.
A school official, who did not wish to be named, said he faced a “massive” shortage of teachers for the “evening shift”. “We have only 14 teachers handling the evening shift; there are 21 vacancies that need to be filled. I do not think we will get any teachers from the 586 that have been approved. These 586 teachers were serving on a contractual basis even before, except the lockdown period,” he said.
He added that close to “400 students” had enrolled in the current academic year for the evening shift and the teaching staff were inadequate.
