Govt gets Delhi HC notice on vacant posts of teachers in its schools

Citing an RTI response, the plea said that the sanctioned posts for teaching and non-teaching staff is 14,743, of which only 9,366 posts are filled, while the remaining 5,377 posts are lying vacant as of July 11.

The bench made note of the request made by the petitioner, Shashi Bhushan Sonbhadra, to make way for broad guidelines for transportation mechanism in government schools along the line of private ones.

The petitioner’s counsel, Shashank Deo Sudhi, also urged that the government be asked to explore possibilities of nursery and kindergarten education in their schools along the line of private schools.

The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on November 2.

The government had recently claimed that the standard of their schools in the city are aligned with that of the “modern education system”.

However, the counsel highlighted other concerns relating to lack of facilities — such as blackboards, sitting benches, proper toilets, sporting facilities, library facilities and computer labs — besides shortage of teachers.

The counsel also contended that the standard of Delhi government schools has gone down, as the pass percentage in their schools fell to 69.32 per cent in 2018 from 92.44 per cent in 2017.

It further informed the court that a total of 13,663 students had appeared for the Class X examination from 990 government schools in 2018, of which only 9,660 students had passed.

“The overall situation in city government schools has been bad for many years now, and no corrective and effective measures have been taken by the respondents (Delhi government and others) to ensure quality education,” the plea alleged.