Assam government abolishes 8,000 sanctioned posts of teachers

The Assam government has decided to abolish 8,000 sanctioned vacant regular teacher positions, including 4,285 in lower primary schools and 3,715 in upper primary schools. The decision to leave these positions vacant “in order to maintain financial neutrality in providing additional benefits to state pool teachers under Sabra Siksha Abihyan, Assam” was taken on May 25 by the cabinet of Sarbananda Sonowal-led government.

 In May 2021, the BJP came to power for the second consecutive term, but Sonowal lost his chair and Himanta Biswa Sarma was made the chief minister. Interestingly, Sarma was the education minister in Sonowal ministry when the Cabinet decision was taken.

 Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu claims that this abolition of posts has been done to avoid duplication as the state already has hired 8,000 contractual teachers. He also asserted that Assam boasted of one of the best student-teacher ratios in India, but teacher rationalisation was critical for financial discipline.

 “Though named contractual, we have stated that these contractual teachers will continue till they reach the age of 60. So, we need to accommodate these 8,000 contractual teachers. That is why we have decided to halt the regularisation of vacant positions. Duplication occurred, and we had 16,000 posts. To ensure fiscal discipline, we have eliminated these 8,000 sanctioned positions,” Pegu told India Today NE.

 According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) plus 2021-22 report released by the Union education ministry on November 4, number of teachers in each school in Assam is on a par with the national average of six while the pupil teacher ratio is 21—one teacher for every 21 students, also better than national average.