Over 16K teaching posts vacant in Assam: Education Minister

Assam's Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said on Thursday that 1,300 teaching posts in colleges and universities and more than 15,000 similar posts in schools are lying vacant in the state.

Pegu also said that in comparison to the data at the primary level in 2021–2022, the gross enrolment ratio (GER) at the higher-secondary level has been on the decline.

In response to a query from Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed in the Assembly, Pegu said that there are currently 16,300 vacant teaching positions across various institutions in the state.

He also said that 2,830 non-teaching positions are still unfilled in schools.

Pegu said that there are 1,686 vacant head teacher positions, 320 vacant principal positions, and 499 vacant vice-principal positions at provincialised high schools and higher-secondary schools.

Replying to a question posed by CPI(M) lawmaker Manoranjan Talukdar, the minister said that there are 465 teaching positions and 860 associate professorships open in the state's 12 universities.

In response to a query from Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah, Pegu said that Assam's GER for basic education was 109.9 per cent based on data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2021–22.