Super 30 founder Anand Kumar on Wednesday underlined the issue of scarcity of teachers, which, in a way, is “hampering India’s growth”.

Speaking at a function organised by Ramanujan School of Mathematics on the eve of Teachers’ Day, Anand said the present teacher crunch posed a question mark on the future of the country.

Super 30 coaches economically weaker students for the IIT entrance examination and it has to its credit more than 200 such youths who have been sent to the IITs since its inception around a decade ago.

“What was once viewed as the most sought-after profession (teaching), is today the least attractive for the talented youths. This has resulted in lakhs of vacant posts of teachers,” Anand said, while citing reasons for shortage of teachers.

Maintaining that Teachers’ Day has been reduced to a mere ritual, he said it was high time the policy makers of the country paid attention to this vital but neglected sphere. “India can do with less engineers and doctors, but it cannot do with such an acute dearth of teachers. The youths are into the far more lucrative race of other professions such as engineering, management because they fetch high packages,” he added.

Expressing concern over the dearth of teachers, he said: “According to official figures, in school education, Uttar Pradesh has a shortfall of 3 lakh teachers, while Bihar is still 2.6 lakh short of the requirement. The situation is no better in other states,” he added.

Anand also raised issues related to falling respect for teachers and said parents, too, were responsible for the trend.