Amid severe shortage, Jharkhand High Court directs govt to recruit 26,000 school teachers

The direction came from a division bench chaired by Chief Justice M S Ramachandra Rao, while hearing a petition filed in June 2024 regarding teacher shortage in Jharkhand. The petition referred to data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2021-22, which highlighted that over 8,000 schools across Jharkhand have only one teacher, meaning nearly one-third of government primary schools in the state are managed by a single teacher.

Additionally, the data revealed that Jharkhand has the worst teacher shortage among all big states. For instance, more than 30% of all government primary schools have a single teacher. The petition also noted that no teacher recruitment has taken place in Jharkhand since 2016.

According to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, primary schools should have one teacher for every 30 students, and every school should have at least two teachers. As per these norms, Jharkhand should have around one lakh primary school teachers. However, the current strength is only around 35,000, indicating a shortfall of over 60,000 teachers at the primary level alone.

In light of the situation, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed last year by economist and activist Dr Jean Drèze and co-petitioner Paran Amitava. The case was argued by Piyushita Meha Tudu, an Advocate who represented the petitioners.

Responding to the petition, the Jharkhand government last month filed an affidavit in the High Court acknowledging the facts. The affidavit pointed out that teacher appointments have been held up by a protracted legal dispute over the respective relevance of the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) and Jharkhand Teacher Eligibility Test (JTET) for teacher recruitment in Jharkhand. This matter was settled by the Supreme Court in January 2025, clearing the way for teacher appointments.

Following this clarification, Chief Justice Ramachandra Rao asked the state government to fast-track appointments and made the JSSC a respondent in the case. The next hearing is scheduled for April 16.

The petitioners argued that even with the recruitment of 26,000 teachers, the number falls far short of the requirement under the RTE norms, since 60,000 extra teachers are needed at the primary level alone.

Petitioner Drèze expressed satisfaction with the High Court’s intervention, calling it a hopeful step. “This step gives some hope to all the children of Jharkhand who are being deprived of quality education. However, the teacher shortage is huge, and it will take strong directions from the court to ensure that the Jharkhand government abides by the norms of the Right to Education Act,” he said.