Palghar: 100 ZP schools likely to be without teachers next year

The Zilha Parishad (ZP) is in a dilemma to release the intra-district transfers of 467 ZP school teachers which will result in almost 100 schools without teachers and 300 plus schools with one teacher for the next academic year.

The state government had initiated an online process of intra-district school transfers. 467 eligible teachers' transfer orders have been approved out of 486 who had applied for the transfer. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ZP has been asked by the state government to relieve the transferred teachers at the earliest date. Various teacher organisations have been pressurising the ZP administration for the release of the teachers.

The ZP education department has 2027 vacant posts in 7292 sanctioned posts. About 100 primary schools which have students studying up to standard four have one teacher and similarly, 300 schools have two teachers in each school.

Details on schools under ZP

The education department of ZP runs 2084 primary schools in eight talukas in Palghar district which imparts education to 1,58,300 students. ZP runs 74 secondary schools which has 20,102 students enrolled with them. The district had sanctioned 60 classes for standard nine and ten but had been running only 41 of these sanctioned classes due to inadequate numbers of teaching staff.

If the teachers are relieved as per the orders of the state government then about 300 plus schools will not have any teachers in the coming academic year. ZP CEO has expressed concerns about the ongoing developments and has discussed the dilemma with the District Guardian Minister Ravindra Chavan to find a solution to this issue.

ZP President Prakash Nikam said the ZP administration has no financial outlay to appoint contractual teachers in vacant positions and will not relieve the transferred teachers till concrete arrangements are made.