Language teachers posts vacant in Delhi, AAP blames Lt Governor

By Nivedita Singh

New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) Contrary to what the AAP had hoped it would be able to achieve, more than 50 per cent of posts to teach Urdu and Punjabi are lying vacant in the national capital. The ruling party is blaming the Lt. Governor for the mess.

According to government data, of the total 2,051 sanctioned posts for the two languages at TGT (trained graduate teachers) level, only 819 teachers are filled up. The total sanctioned posts for TGT Urdu is 1,028 and for Punjabi 1,023.

As of February, 575 posts of Urdu TGTs and 657 posts of Punjabi TGTs are vacant, official figures say.

Of the total 1,028 posts for Urdu teachers, only 57 regular teachers have been appointed. While 88 teachers have been appointed from the Urdu Academy, 308 are guest teachers.

For Punjabi, of the sanctioned 1,023 posts, 112 permanent teachers have been appointed. Another 128 have come from the Punjabi Academy while 126 posts are filled up with guest teachers.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) promised in its 2015 election manifesto to employ an adequate number of teachers for teaching Urdu and Punjabi, which are second languages in the national capital.

But this has not really happened the way AAP would have wanted it.

The main reason, AAP leaders say, is that the matter related to Services, including recruitment, transfer and posting, is with the Delhi Lt. Governor and the Delhi government does not have any control over the issue.

"All the recruitment in Delhi government are handled by BJP's Lt. Governor and the government is not even allowed to get the information about the vacant posts," AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said.

Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia had written to the Directorate of Education (DoE) last month saying the AAP government was spending 25 per cent of its budget on education, "so that city's children could get a high-quality education. But there is no point in spending this money if there is a shortage of teachers".

The situation is no better in other languages as well.

For English, of the total 5,347 sanctioned posts, only 2,464 have been filled with regular teachers. A total of 2,298 posts have guest teachers and 585 posts are vacant.

Similarly, for Hindi, of the total 4,740 teaching posts sanctioned, only 2,671 have regular teachers. While 76 posts are vacant, 1,993 guest teachers are working to cover up the gap.

(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)