Bengaluru: Nearly 22% of teachers’ posts in Karnataka government schools are vacant, a NITI Aayog report said, placing the state among those with a significant staffing gap in school education.Against the total sanctioned strength of 1,78,935 for 41,088 government primary schools, there’s a shortage of 38,163 teachers.Quoting from project approval board meetings of 2025, the NITI report said 77% of the vacancies are in primary and upper primary schools. Of the total shortfall, 29,473 vacancies are at the elementary level and 8,690 at the secondary level.In absolute terms, Karnataka’s shortage is lower than those of Bihar, which reported 2.8 lakh vacancies, Jharkhand (99,565), Madhya Pradesh (52,019) and West Bengal (77,798). The report said states should focus on policy correctives.States such as Kerala and Delhi reported no teacher vacancies. Telangana and Chhattisgarh did not specify figures.The Karnataka government had earlier announced plans to recruit 15,000 teachers. The process is yet to begin.”There has been a new decision by the cabinet on internal reservation. After incorporating that, notifications will be issued. Once the nod comes from the finance dept, we can complete recruitment in 100 days. We hope to fill vacancies in the latter part of the coming academic year,” commissioner for school education, Vikas Kishor Suralkar, said.Educationists said the delay reflects a lack of urgency in addressing the condition of government schools.”We haven’t seen evidence of genuine attempts to improve our schools across the state in the past three years,” Maya Menon, founder-director, The Teacher Foundation, said. “Committed and competent teachers are critical for improving our schools, as is thoughtful and sustained professional development of teachers. These have taken a backseat. Exam results are not an indication of what children learn in our schools,” Menon added.AS Seetharamu, former faculty member at Institute for Social and Economic Change, said the growing dependence on temporary appointments has contributed to the persistence of vacancies, pointing to the expansion of guest and contract teacher appointments after the launch of Shiksha Karmi project and Samagra Shikshana Abhiyan.”With flexibility in appointment, and with cost-effectiveness and appointments without legislature nod, large volume of vacancies of regular teachers continued all over India. Low investments for quality schooling is the reason for vacancies,” he noted.Seetharamu pointed to a mismatch between supply and employment opportunities, noting Karnataka has an “over-saturation” of qualified teachers waiting for govt jobs, even as several DEd and BEd colleges are witnessing decline in admissions and closures.
