Parliament Question: Recruitment of teachers and vacant posts

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 520 ANSWERED ON 04.02.2026 Recruitment of teachers and vacant posts 520 # Dr. Sandeep Kumar Pathak: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the total number of sanctioned teaching posts in Government schools, Central Universities, IITs, NITs and other central higher education institutions in the country and the number of posts currently vacant out of these sanctioned posts, the institution-wise and State-wise, details thereof; (b) whether Government is aware of the fact that the shortage of teachers over the last three years has affected the quality of education, the student-to-teacher ratio and research work, if so, the details thereof; and (c) the main reasons for delays in filling these vacancies and the concrete steps taken by Government to make the teacher recruitment process faster, transparent and time-bound, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR) (a) to (c) Education being a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, both the Centre and States/ UTs are responsible for the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Schools in the country. The Central Higher Education Institutions (CHEIs) under Ministry of Education including Central Universities, IITs, NITs are statutory autonomous organizations established under respective Central Acts of Parliament and governed by provisions of the Acts/Statutes/Ordinances/Regulations made thereunder. As autonomous institutions, faculty recruitment is done within the institutions itself, in accordance with their Acts and Regulations.The recruitment powers vests with the respective Board of Governors/Executive Committee/Board of Management. As far as the School Education is concerned, the recruitment, service conditions and rational deployment of teachers come under the purview of the respective State governments/UT administrations. In order to ensure quality, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has laid down minimum qualification for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher. The Government periodically advises States/UTs to fill vacant posts of teachers, to ensure timely recruitment of teachers by adopting a transparent and merit-based process through autonomous teacher recruitment boards or similar organisations. Occurring of vacancies and filling thereof is a continuous process. The vacancies arise due to promotion, retirement, resignation, death, opening of new institutions, schemes or projects, and additional requirements on account of enhanced students’ strength and expansion of capacity in existing institutions. In Centrally financed Higher Education Institutions, measures have been taken to attract quality faculties which includes year-round open advertisements, recruitment through search-cum- selection procedures, special recruitment drive, mission mode recruitment and invitation to alumni/scientists/faculty, etc. The faculty recruitment processes are carried out by the CHEIs by inviting applications in a transparent manner, as part of a multi-step and robust screening process. The Acts and Statutes of various institutions specify the composition of selection committees, authorities responsible for recruitment of various levels of faculty, provision of independent subject experts and Visitor’s nominees etc. so as to ensure transparency and academic rigour in recruitments. UGC has launched a common portal ‘CU-CHAYAN’ for faculty recruitment, making provision for listing of vacancies/ advertisements/ jobs across all Central Universities, thus making the entire recruitment process more transparent and accessible. In August, 2021, all CHEIs under Ministry of Education were requested to undertake special drive to fill backlog vacancies in their institutions in Mission Mode. The CHEIs undertook special recruitment drives to fill the vacancies including of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). In September 2022, Ministry of Education had also exhorted all the CHEIs to fill up the vacancies in Mission Mode. In October 2025, all the CHEIshave again been requested to fill up all the backlog vacancies in Mission Mode within a period of one year. From September 2022, all CHEIs including Central Universities (CUs), IITs and NITs have undertaken Mission Mode recruitment drive to fill the vacancies. Up to 24.10.2025 (i.e. the date of 17th tranche of Rozgar Mela), a total number of 29979 posts have been filled up by all CHEIs, including 17494 faculty positions, in Mission Mode. Out of these 29979 posts, during the said period, CUs, IITs, and NITs collectively have filled up 27133 posts including 16078 faculty positions. With a view to collecting real-time data from schools, Government of India has developed the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) from the year 2018-19. As per the data reported by States/ UTs in UDISE+ 2024-25, the number of teachers in position in government schools is 51,49,771. To enhance the quality of higher education, the Government of India has undertaken several measures, including the provision of quality infrastructure, strengthening of the research and innovation ecosystem, promotion of industry–academia linkages etc. As the result of these concerted efforts, India has witnessed a massive jump in its Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking from 66th position in 2013 to 40th in 2023. India is at 6th position (in 2022) in number of patent applications from 8th position (in 2012) as per WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators. India also occupies 3rd rank in terms of number of Ph.Ds awarded in Science and Engineering (S&E) as per ‘Research and Development statistics at a glance 2022-23’ published by Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology. India also ranked 3rd in 2022 (from 6th in 2012) in terms of total number of Science and Engineering publications as per the National Science Foundation (NSF) database of the United States. 54 Indian Institutions have been ranked in the QS World University Ranking (QS WUR) 2026. This is India’s highest ever representation, marking a growth from 11 institutions in QS WUR 2015 to 54 in QS WUR 2026. Eight Indian institutions have been ranked for the first time, which is the highest number for any country in this edition, both within the G20 and globally. The number of Indian HEIs featured in the QS WUR has doubled in the past five years, rising from 27 in QS WUR 2021 to 54 in QS WUR 2026, thus underscoring sustained policy initiatives,strengthened research and innovation capacity, and the steadily rising global profile of India’s higher education system. The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 emphasizes to ensure under 30:1 Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) in each school and under 25:1 PTR for areas having large numbers of socio-economically disadvantaged students. Samagra Shiksha provides financial assistance to the States and UTs to maintain PTR for various levels of schooling, as per norms prescribed in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. *****