Government schools in Himachal Pradesh are facing mounting pressure due to a large number of vacant teaching posts and slow recruitment, raising concerns over classroom management and learning outcomes, particularly in senior secondary and rural schools.
According to data, nearly 7,000 teaching and academic positions are lying vacant across the state. These include around 900 posts of principals, 75 headmasters, nearly 2,700 lecturers and over 1,300 Trained Graduate Teachers (TGTs) across Arts, Medical and Non-Medical streams. Vacancies are also significant among physical education teachers, Shastri (Sanskrit) teachers, art teachers and language teachers, affecting both curricular and co-curricular activities in government schools.
Prolonged vacancies, especially for subject lecturers, directly affect subject continuity and academic supervision. Senior secondary classes are among the worst hit, with students often left without subject-specific teachers for months, impacting board examination preparation and overall academic performance. Studies on school education in hill states highlight that teacher shortages are closely linked to declining learning levels, particularly in science, mathematics and languages.
As per information, around 6,000 teachers have retired in the last three years, and nearly 5,000 more are expected to retire by March 2026. Experts say such figures should have triggered advance recruitment cycles and faster promotion processes to ensure continuity, which did not happen. Apart from it, hundreds of schools are functioning without regular heads or subject specialists, weakening academic leadership and monitoring at the school level.
The state government has acknowledged the shortage and initiated recruitment in certain categories. The state selection commission has started the process to fill 1,318 TGT posts, which officials describe as a step towards stabilising staffing at the middle and secondary levels. The government has also spoken about teacher rationalisation to improve deployment and reduce the imbalance between schools. However, teachers’ bodies argue that the pace of recruitment is slow compared to the scale of vacancies, and ad-hoc adjustments cannot substitute regular appointments.
Policy experts note that the challenge is structural and requires sustained recruitment planning rather than sporadic hiring drives. They stress the need to prioritise filling lecturer and principal posts, strengthen teacher training and ensure timely recruitment calendars so that vacancies do not spill over across academic sessions.
The issue has also entered the policy and political domain. Teacher shortages and slow recruitment in government schools have been raised during Vidhan Sabha discussions, with demands for a clear roadmap, time-bound appointments and accountability in the recruitment process to safeguard the quality of public education in Himachal Pradesh.
