Ranchi: States are already in soup when implementation of the 'landmark' Right To Education (RTE) Act is talked about. They are dwindling with the funds and resources to carry forward the 'education to all initiative.'

Jharkhand comes as another example after Uttar Pradesh where there are in all 40,313 government schools in the state imparting education to almost 40 lakh students upto class VIII but there are no teachers to teach.

The scenario is almost same in all the government run schools of the state, which are grappling with the shortage of faculty.

As of now, 13,500 posts are lying vacant out of the 1,33,500 posts for teachers in the state.

According to the estimates, 15% of the teaching staff is set to retire soon while those of the 10% are to retire by the end of this year.

Another major hurdle in their recruitment is the meager salaries offered to them due to which they are not motivated to join the profession.

Where a permanent teacher gets anything between Rs.12,000 to Rs.18,000 per month, those appointed on contractual basis as 'para teachers' receive as low as Rs.4,000 to Rs.5,000 per month.

A para teacher revealed that, "The school is keen on admitting students irrespective of the posts of teachers lying vacant. Such an activity is being carried by the schools since the RTE Act was cleared on August 26 last year by the Parliament and the President of India."

The approved ratio of teachers and students according to the Act is 1:30 respectively that is flouted openly with figures as high as 1:450.

D. K. Saxena, Director (Primary Education), upon being asked about the looming number of vacancies and the flouting figures replied that such a pattern is due to the unwillingness of large number of teachers to work in areas, which are in a want of civic amenities.

"We are trying to rationalize the staff pattern now," he added.

Mridula Sinha, Secretary, Human Resource Department (HRD), under whose jurisdiction the neighbourhood schools of the state government work said that, "An alternative mechanism to recruit qualified teachers is in place, we are working on it."