Parliamentary Report Exposes Alarming 10 Lakh Teacher Vacancies in India

New Delhi: The 368th Parliamentary Report has issued one of the most urgent warnings yet on the state of India’s education system, revealing a nationwide shortage of teachers, entrenched administrative delays, and structural weaknesses that could deepen the country’s learning crisis.

Nearly 10 lakh teaching posts remain vacant across India, with the shortage most acute in primary and elementary schools. Of these, 7.5 lakh vacancies are at the foundational level, where children acquire essential literacy and numeracy skills. The Committee warns that without immediate recruitment, this gap will have long-term consequences for learning outcomes and social mobility.

This is not a problem restricted to underfunded or remote government schools. Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, institutions widely regarded as central models of quality, are running with 30 to 50 percent of their teaching positions unfilled. The Committee notes that such shortfalls in flagship schools illustrate the depth of recruitment paralysis.

In place of permanent appointments, the education system is increasingly relying on contractual hires to keep classrooms functioning. The Committee calls this practice unsustainable and damaging to educational quality. Contract teachers work with lower pay, minimal benefits, and no clear career path, leading to instability and frequent turnover. This undermines continuity in teaching and erodes the student–teacher relationship. It also bypasses constitutional provisions for reservation in public employment for SC, ST, OBC, EWS, and PwD categories, weakening the inclusivity public education is meant to uphold.

In many states, particularly those funded under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), contractual appointments have shifted from temporary stopgaps to permanent practice, even when funds are available for regular recruitment. Retirements often outpace appointments, leaving schools with skeletal permanent staff and a growing dependency on insecure, temporary workers.

The shortage extends into the very institution tasked with setting and maintaining teacher quality: the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). As of June 2025, 54 percent of Group A posts, 43 percent of Group B posts, and 89 percent of Group C posts in the NCTE are vacant. No permanent recruitment has taken place since 2019, with the Council relying heavily on temporary consultants. The Committee warns that without adequate manpower, the NCTE cannot effectively regulate, coordinate, or enforce quality standards across the country.

The report also scrutinises new regulatory proposals that could worsen the situation. The Draft NCTE Regulation 2025 introduces hyper-specialised, stage- and subject- specific teacher training. The Committee warns that such early specialisation, locking students into narrow teaching roles at the age of 17 or 18, risks creating rigid staffing patterns, shortages in certain grades (especially the foundational stage), and oversupply in others. It could also trigger legal disputes if the new qualifications conflict with existing state recruitment rules.

Instead, the Committee proposes two broad categories: generalist teachers for classes 1–5 and subject specialists for classes 6–12. This, it argues, would allow more flexible deployment and avoid premature career specialisation.

The report also raises concerns about over- centralisation in teacher education. Under the current proposals, universities would have only 30 percent freedom to adapt curricula, with 70 percent prescribed by NCTE. The Committee argues this reduces academic autonomy and risks creating uniform but inflexible training disconnected from local needs, languages, and contexts. It recommends giving universities at least 50 percent control over curricula, with NCTE setting only broad guidelines rather than rigid content.

On the question of teacher preparation, the Committee notes that while the Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) is intended to standardise and modernise training, its introduction could amplify inequalities. With 92 percent of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) in private hands, and many lacking adequate infrastructure or faculty, only a small number will be able to meet ITEP’s demands. This could force weaker institutions to shut down or lower standards, widening the quality gap between different regions and socio-economic groups.

The Committee calls for multiple pathways into the profession rather than a single mandatory route, and stresses the need to protect proven programmes such as the B.El.Ed., which has delivered high-quality elementary teachers for years. It also highlights the need to maintain the existing qualification pathway of a 12th-grade education plus a two-year diploma for entry into elementary teaching, to avoid creating unnecessary barriers for early-grade educators.

Faculty shortages are not confined to schools. Teacher training institutions themselves, including District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), face vacancies, poor infrastructure, and lack of resources. Only 613 of India’s 780 districts have functional DIETs, and many of these are severely understaffed. The Committee recommends that every district should have at least one fully functional DIET, with all vacancies filled by March 2026, upgraded infrastructure, faculty development programmes, and partnerships with leading universities and NGOs.

The Committee’s recommendations call for an urgent shift from temporary fixes to structural solutions. It urges the government to fill all NCTE and teaching vacancies in central and SSA- funded schools with permanent appointments by March 2026, stop contractual hiring for permanent roles, and withhold SSA teacher salary funds from states that fail to recruit. It also advocates for faculty capacity-building through continuous professional development, robust internship networks, evaluation frameworks, and technology-driven training tools, alongside respect for linguistic and cultural diversity in adapting training programmes.

The report describes an education system where the institutions meant to ensure quality, from regulatory bodies to training colleges, are themselves weakened by vacancies, underfunding, and misaligned policies. Recruitment delays, over-centralisation, and inconsistent oversight have left classrooms understaffed and teacher training uneven in quality.

The Committee’s message is direct: no policy reform, infrastructure project, or curriculum change will succeed without enough qualified, secure, and well-supported teachers in classrooms. The March 2026 deadline for filling vacancies is more than an administrative goal; it is a critical test of whether the government is prepared to address the foundational staffing crisis undermining Indian education. Failure to act decisively risks entrenching a divided system in which the quality of a child’s education depends less on learning policy and more on whether their teacher is permanent or temporary, a division that could define the futures of millions of students.