Agartala: Tripura is facing a severe shortage of teachers in its primary education system, with the state needing 4,187 more teachers, as Chief Minister Manik Saha disclosed in the state assembly on Wednesday. The shortage mainly hits both Under Graduate Teachers (UGTs) and Graduate Teachers (GTs) in the schools of the state.
In an assembly session, while answering a query put forth by CPI(M) MLA Nayan Sarkar, Chief Minister Saha, who is also the Education portfolio holder, informed about the present staffing scenario in Tripura schools. The state’s elementary education system needs 10,391 UGTs and 8,546 GTs as per revised state norms, the CM informed. But till date, Tripura has only 8,985 UGTs and 5,765 GTs working in schools under the Elementary Education Department. This creates a deficit of 1,406 UGTs and 2,781 GTs, making the total deficit 4,187 teachers.
The state government has already initiated some measures to meet the shortage of teachers in the last five years. According to the details presented by the Chief Minister, a total of 4,656 UGTs and GTs have been appointed during the last five years under the Teachers’ Recruitment Board of Tripura (TRBT). These appointments are meant to fill the vacancies, but given that the shortage is still high, the state government is facing growing pressure to do more in the recruitment of quality teachers.
Apart from giving importance to recruitment, the Chief Minister stressed the government’s resolve to enhance the quality of education in Tripura. He mentioned the NIPUN state mission, initiated for the promotion of foundational reading and numeracy throughout the state. NIPUN focuses on addressing fundamental problems in primary education to ensure students gain necessary competencies in reading and mathematics.
So far, over 10,182 teachers of primary school have been professionally trained under NIPUN initiative, which enriched their skills and pedagogy. In addition, the state government has named 200 master trainers as cluster and block resource persons to drive the NIPUN mission further and strengthen the state’s educational system.
While the state government’s focus is on enhancing teacher quality and pupil performance, the continued shortage of teachers continues to be a cause for concern. Educationists have noted that the shortage in manpower not only adds to the burden of the current teachers but also impedes the overall learning experience within schools. The Tripura government can be expected to be in a hurry to recruit and undertake other such innovative measures to comply with the urgent requirement.
While demand for more instructors increases, the education system in the state struggles to match quality and quantity. Having schools that are sufficiently covered with properly qualified teachers is necessary to advance educational standards as well as the provision of an adequate learning atmosphere for the students in Tripura. The policies made by the government, such as increasing training for teachers as well as direct hiring, play key roles in fixing these ongoing issues.
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