More than 58,000 teaching and non-teaching posts are vacant in Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya schools and Central Higher Education Institutes across the country, according to the Ministry of Education.
The information was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question in Lok Sabha.
The minister informed that 12,099 teaching posts and 1,312 non-teaching posts are vacant in Kendriya Vidyalayas.
In Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, 3,271 teaching posts are vacant. The number of vacant non-teaching posts in the residential schools is 1,756.
In the higher education institutions, the highest number of vacant posts are in Central Universities where 6,180 teaching posts and 15,798 non-teaching posts are yet to be filled.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have 4,425 teaching posts that are vacant while there are 5,052 non-teaching posts that are vacant.
In National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology, 2,089 teaching posts and 3,773 non-teaching posts are vacant.
Similarly, in Indian Institutes of Science and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, the number of vacant teaching and non-teaching posts is 353 and 625.
In Indian Institutes of Management, 1,050 teaching and non-teaching posts are vacant.
"The vacancies arise due to retirement, resignation, promotion and additional requirement on account of up-gradation or sanctioning of new streams as well as enhancement of students' strength," Sarkar said.
"Filling up of vacancies is a continuous process and efforts are made to fill up the vacancies as per the provisions of the relevant recruitment rules of concerned institution," Sarkar said.
Teachers are also engaged on contractual basis for temporary duration by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) to ensure that the teaching-learning process is not hampered, he said.
"In order to meet the shortfall in the faculty, the HEIs are having the provision of recruiting and appointing visiting or adjunct faculty, Emeritus Professor," he added.