Over 11,000 schools without a principal: Survey report

A report released by NGO Samarthan stated that more than 11,000 principal posts are lying vacant in the government primary schools in the academic year 2015-16. The report said that academic deliverables and key decisions like deciding the academic roadmap were getting affected as the senior-most teacher was burdened with the additional duties of the principal.

State education department officials said that a decision on the recruitment of principals has not been taken as they are currently in the process of restructuring the primary, upper-primary and secondary schools, based on the number of students on rolls and in accordance with the RTE norms.

Rupesh Kir, co-ordinator with Samarthan said, "We surveyed 213 zilla parishad schools in Vasai taluka near Mumbai. Of these, 19 schools have no principals, while in the last 6 years, the Vasai taluka has not seen a block education officer. With no principals, common staff meetings and review of teachers and parent-teacher meetings are not taken seriously. In this taluka, 125 teachers' posts are also vacant, increasing the burden on existing teachers."

Although apprised of the situation, the education department has not begun recruitments. Mahavir Mane, state director of education (primary), said, "While the figures on vacancies of schools principals is true, the recruitment has intentionally not been done as we are in the process of restructuring schools to comply with Right to Education norms. We are joining Class 5 with the primary section and Class 8 with the upper primary section. We are also combining schools that have less than 20 students on the rolls with other schools nearby. Once this is over, we would know the exact number of vacancies and conduct the recruitment after receiving a government approval.”

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