Punjab: Nearly 47 per cent of the 1,723 government high schools in the state do not have principals. After a survey revealed that 44 per cent of the senior secondary schools in the state did not have principals, the Government Teachers Association conducted a survey which found that 810 of the 1,723 posts of principals in the state’s high schools are lying vacant. Sharing the details of the survey, association president Sukhwinder Singh Chahal said that in the case of Tarn Taran, 81 of the 96 posts of principals are vacant, while in Nawanshahr, 81 per cent posts are vacant. In Mohali, considered a VIP station, only 10 per cent posts are vacant. “In the government high school at Hamirgarh in Sangrur, the post of principal has been lying vacant for the last 30 years.
Apart from taking classes, the principals are responsible for the overall control of the schools,” he said. Of the over 19,200 government schools in the state, 1,723 are high schools. Interestingly, Majha and Doaba regions have a higher rate of vacancy than Malwa. The problem of shortage of principals started when the education department under the previous Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in 2018 changed the rules and kept 50 per cent quota for direct appointment of principals and the rest through promotion of headmasters/lecturers. Earlier, the quota for direct recruitment was 25 per cent, while the remaining posts were filled through promotion. A senior government official said the case related to direct recruitment is pending with the Punjab and Haryana High Court. “The government should amend the promotion rules of 2018 to clear the backlog of promotion posts of headmasters,” Chahal said.
