Bhubaneswar, May 27: The Naveen Patnaik government has recruited 20,418 shiksha sahayaks (para-teachers) for various government schools across the state. Among the districts, Ganjam topped the list with 3,052 appointees, while the number for Deogarh was the lowest with 87 recruitments.

However, 3,582 posts are still lying vacant because of the non-availability of qualified candidates in reserved categories.

To fill up the vacancies, the state school and mass education department is planning to post advertisements for fresh recruitments soon. The process for appointment of shiksha sahayaks began last February.

A petition was filed in the high court to halt the recruitment programme, but the court quashed the case citing the need for recruitment. The state had published advertisements regarding the recruitment of nearly 24,000 candidates. Ganjam had the maximum vacancies at 3,460, followed by Mayurbhanj (2,163) and Jajpur (1,147). In Bhadrak, there were no vacant posts.

The recruitment was carried out in every district. For the 24,000 vacant posts, 20,418 candidates have already received appointment letters. Out of them, 10,853 are trained teachers, while the rest are untrained, contractual teachers.