Edappadi K Palaniswami criticises Tamil Nadu govt for not filling 12,000 vacancies of teachers

CHENNAI: Former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday criticised the state government for not filling 12,000 vacancies of teachers for the past two years. The schools are all set to reopen for the next academic year. “I urge this government to fill the vacant positions on a war-footing to provide quality education to the students in government schools. There are several lakh qualified teachers in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Quoting the teachers’ associations, the former chief minister said that 670 higher secondary schools, 435 high schools and hundreds of middle schools did not have headmasters/headmistresses in the state.
“The teachers’ associations complain that due to lack of faculty, classes are stuffed with twice the number of students than what is permitted,” he said in a statement. Parents were worried about the fate of their wards when schools were all set to reopen, he said.
Alleging that lack of teaching staff resulted in more than 50,000 students abstaining from board examinations last year, especially from writing Tamil language paper, Palaniswami sought to know the action taken as there were reports that a committee was looking into the issue.
“The school education department, using its Education Management Information System (EMIS), should find out whether there are excess teachers in schools. There are reports that many government-aided schools have excess teachers. Owing to delay in holding counselling, they have not been transferred to vacant posts even though many of them have given willingness for transfers to government schools,” the former chief minister said, urging the government to hold online counselling immediately.