Bhubaneswar, March 11: The school and mass education department will engage retired schoolteachers to fill up the vacant posts in primary schools.

Department secretary Usha Padhee said they had recently issued notifications to fill up over 17,000 teaching posts. However, it would not be enough to meet the present needs.

"We estimated that after different rounds of recruitment of the siksha sahayaks, only 10,000 vacancies would be fulfilled. It was difficult to fill up the vacancies, especially in the ST/SC categories. The retired teachers are experienced, and many of them are quite fit to continue the job. That is why we thought of engaging them and it would be of immense help," said Padhee.

The department has asked district project co-ordinators of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the district education officers to calculate the number of retired teachers in various blocks across the state.

"Once we get a clear picture about the number of retired teachers, the recruitment process will begin. We will make sure the teachers work at their nearby schools since they may not agree to relocate," said Padhee.

To regulate the process, the department will come up with a set of guidelines in the next three to four days. It would include the monthly salaries of teachers and the number of days and working hours they need to put for the purpose.

Sources said the recruitment would begin from the upcoming academic session. Earlier, the state had appointed retired teachers at various high schools.

In another development, to encourage reading habits among the students in primary schools, the state government has also planned to publish a students' magazine every three months.

"Earlier, the Odia Bhasha Pratisthan used to publish a students' magazine. We have planned to publish the magazine in those lines in the educational institutions of the state," Padhee said.

Students would be encouraged to write articles and poems on a regular basis. The magazine would also feature the latest happenings in their respective institutions.

Speaking about the budgetary provisions for the publication of the magazine, Padhee said: "There is fund provision for such activities under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. We would seek the accord of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan approval board for the same."