Cuttack, Dec. 3: The government has admitted in Orissa High Court that as many as 43,138 posts of teachers at government elementary schools across the state are vacant.

In an affidavit, the school and mass education department said 36,302 of the 1,42,538 posts under the regular elementary cadre remain vacant. Besides, as many as 6,837 of the 92,337 posts under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are also vacant.

On Monday, the court was hearing a PIL to achieve 100 per cent literacy in elementary education across the state. The affidavit was submitted in pursuance of an order issued on November 24.

In the affidavit, department secretary Ranjana Chopra said: "As regarding the filling up of vacancies of regular elementary cadre posts, in the present system, there is no direct recruitment of regular elementary teachers. On completion of six years of continuous service of the shiksha sahayaks, they are being absorbed as the regular elementary teachers."

"The vacancies in respect of 36,302 regular assistant teacher posts will be filled up by end of March 2017. In respect of filling up of vacancies of shiksha sahayaks, under the abhiyan, recruitment process of the remaining vacancy of 6,837 is expected to be filled up by March 31, 2016," Chopra said in the affidavit.

Though the affidavit said there were 53,455 government elementary schools in the state, it did not specify where the vacancies were in the posts of teachers. The court had further sought "correct up-to-date basic data as regards the number of children out of school".

However, Chopra conceded that "collection of detailed information and data in all 30 districts about the number of children out of school and dropouts are being processed and may be completed by end of March 2016".

Chopra indicated that as many as 63.86 lakh students in the age group between six and 14 were enrolled from classes I to VIII in 59,047 elementary schools in the state during 2014-15. The schools included 53,455 government elementary schools, 1,857 aided schools, 3,667 private schools and 68 central government schools.

However, the division bench of Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice B.P. Ray directed the secretary to file a report corroborated by affidavits by all the district education officers on the enrolment of students in their respective districts.

Taking note of a media report, the high court had on August 25 registered the PIL. Initiating the PIL proceedings, the court had observed that the children were to be traced and brought back to school. It had further decided to "monitor continuously" the required co-ordination among several departments "as a mission of achieving 100 per cent literacy among children of six years of age and above".

Sahayaks' demo

About 5,000 teachers under the banner of the Odisha Shiksha Sahayak Association today staged a demonstration in front of the Assembly here demanding fulfilment of their charter of demands, including regularisation of jobs after three years of service, naming them as junior teacher instead of shiksha sahayak and entitlement to basic pay along with grade pay besides 10 per cent annual increment.

The teachers led a march at Lower PMG Square and raised slogans against the government while alleging that no steps had been taken despite repeated assurances.

The state has as many as 50,000 shiksha sahayaks working in various schools.