The delay in filling teacher vacancies in corporation schools in North Chennai is affecting daily classes and the quality of education.
For example, a school in North Chennai, considered to be among the best performing middle schools, has not been conducting Math classes for two weeks. Another middle school in Ennore with a strength of 525 students has only six teachers.
As teachers and parents hope the vacancies are filled through the school management committee, teachers are being temporarily assigned for a week or two to these corporation schools from other schools.
In the corporation middle schools in north Chennai, despite having a large number of students, about 50% or less of the teacher posts have been filled, according to sources.
At the Chennai Middle School in Tsunami Quarters near Ennore, there are 525 students and six teachers, including the headmaster, which is far below the sanctioned strength of 17 teachers. The vacant post includes seven secondary grade teachers, two BT (Bachelor of Teaching) Assistants and two additional teacher posts. As a result, each classroom has 60 to 75 students.
B Vignesh (25), an alumnus of the school, who now supports it through an NGO, said, "Most of the available teachers are English instructors, but they are also responsible for teaching Science, Social Science, and Math. Additionally, a few teachers from neighbouring corporation schools visit weekly to provide supplementary instruction, but they reportedly often repeat the topics and homework."
The Chennai Middle School, Ramanathapuram near Wimco Nagar, which recently received the Best Corporation School award has around 390 students, has at least five vacant teacher positions.
A teacher from a nearby corporation school was appointed in the first week of July to teach Math, but only stayed for a week. Currently, for about two weeks, the students have had no Math classes, sources said.
"When I asked my daughter why she didn't work on her Math homework, she told me that there was no teacher for the subject. We can't even blame the school because due to the teacher shortage, two teachers have been appointed by the school with minimal salaries provided by the teachers themselves," said S Sangeetha, a mother of a Class VIII student.
Despite seven Class VIII students from Ramanathapuram passing the National Means Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMS) test in 2023 and qualifying for a RS 48,000 scholarship, the school is struggling to offer special NMMS preparatory classes this year due to a shortage of teachers.
Similarly, the corporation school at Kathivakkam with around 200 students has only six teachers despite having 10 sanctioned posts.
"This situation has persisted since March of the last academic year. Despite the upcoming mid-term exams in August, we are unable to complete the syllabus. While the government encourages us to enroll more students, they failed to provide necessary teachers," said a teacher who wished to remain anonymous.
"Many such corporation schools have teacher shortages. Despite raising this as a concern repeatedly in council meetings, no action has been taken yet," Ward 4 councillor R Jayaraman said.
A senior corporation official from the education department said since the TRB (Teachers Recruitment Board) exams have been conducted, the issue of insufficient teachers in corporation schools will be addressed soon.
