Kendriya Vidyalayas not hit by shortage of teachers: Education Ministry

Amid the reports of Kendriya Vidyalayas being hit by staff crunch, the Ministry of Education on Monday clarified that there is no shortage of principals and teachers in KVs across the country.

Union Minister of State for Education, Annapurna Devi said that the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) has carried out a rationalization exercise for ensuring availability of adequate number of regular teachers in the school across the country.

She further said, "There is no such shortage of principals and teachers as teachers are regularly engaged on contractual basis pending regular recruitment, for which advertisement has been issued recently."

While responding to a question about whether there was no scheme for career progression or a transfer policy leading to many spending five to seven years at far-flung stations, and they complain of a "policy paralysis", Devi said there are notified schemes for career progression and transfer guidelines for all category of employees in KVS.

In her written reply in Lok Sabha, she said, "There is no policy paralysis and KVS has been actively making special efforts to address learning loss arising from the pandemic. Such learning recovery measures, depending on the requirements of the students include remedial measures taken to address the problem and difficult areas of each student, extra classes, assigning expert teachers for personalized attention, parental engagement, use of technology and specific instructional material and worksheet and workbooks to address the specific learning requirements of students."

According to PTI, Devi also refuted the reports that several principals are frustrated over being forced to do double shifts and hence, they complained of 'employee unrest'.