In the state, there are over 2.4 lakh teachers employed in 45,000 primary and 4,300 secondary schools.
Digital Desk: The Assam government is looking into hiring guest teachers at its schools for the first time to deal with the teacher shortage, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said.
According to him, there are currently about 8,000 vacant teaching posts in the state, a number of which are only open to applicants who fall under the Scheduled Tribe (Hills) category.
In an interview with PTI, Pegu said that the state cabinet has already given its approval to the plan to hire guest teachers, and the education department has started the preparatory steps to appoint them in select schools till permanent faculty members are appointed.
He added that rather than interfering directly, the government initially plans to carry out the suggestion by establishing alumni associations in the schools, particularly in the historically significant ones.
"These alumni associations will be crucial to ensuring that schools provide high-quality instruction. To ensure that courses are not disrupted, they would try to hire guest teachers while permanent ones are being selected, Pegu added.
He said that the government would appoint retired teachers to fill the position if alumni associations were unable to find qualified candidates.
Our major goal is to give our school students a high-quality education. The guest teachers will receive a set monthly salary rather than payment for each lesson, as is the case in colleges and universities, he said. Furthermore, the minister clarified the difference between these guest teachers and the contract teachers, who are already employed in thousands of schools across the state.
Pegu stated that the state has 8,000 open positions.
"Of these, 4,000 posts in the elementary and secondary levels are vacant. We recently appointed 11,000 new teachers. A significant chunk of the vacant posts are reserved for the ST-Hills category. Unfortunately, we are having trouble finding qualified people to fill positions in the reserved category, he said.
However, he stated that before the end of the current fiscal year, the government will fill these 8,000 vacancies.
In the state, there are over 2.4 lakh teachers employed in 45,000 primary and 4,300 secondary schools.
He added that a state cabinet-approved online application portal will soon be operational to begin the teacher transfers, which have been halted for almost three years.
"We'll get things going by issuing the instructions for the mutual transfer process, which will happen this month. The teachers' one-time transfers under various circumstances will come next, according to Pegu.
He emphasised that, in the case of a single transfer system, instructors with health-related reasons and women with marital reasons will be given priority.
According to the minister, this fiscal year will see the consolidation of about 3,000 schools with those nearby.
"This cannot be interpreted as school closure. To raise the standard of education overall, we shall merge. Additionally, this experiment will be done in the future, "he said.
Assam's government began the process of combining two schools because of a variety of factors, including a lower number of students, poor facilities, a lower teacher-to-student ratio, and higher operational costs.
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