Every year October 5 is celebrated as World Teachers’ Day across the world. Following the recommendation of UNESCO, World Teachers’ Day is celebrated worldwide on 5 October. World Teachers’ Day is mainly celebrated to express gratitude towards teachers and to underline the role of teachers in building society. However, National Teachers’ Day is celebrated on 5 September in India. Meanwhile, a research report by the State Bank of India (SBI) has been released, highlighting the number and shortage of teachers in the country. According to the SBI report, there are 17.32 lakh teachers in India, with an increase of 27 per cent teachers in the last 10 years, but even then 34 per cent teacher posts are vacant.

Let’s know the SBI research report shows the number of teachers in the country, shortage and other facts. Know where there is shortage of teachers in the country.

Appointment of 3.65 lakh teachers in a decade

SBI Research released a report based on AISHE data. According to the report, about 3.65 lakh teachers have been added to India’s higher education system in the last decade. This number is based on teachers appointed nationally in the last 10 years. According to the report, there were 13.68 lakh teachers in the country in 2013-14, which has increased to 17.32 lakh in 2023-24. In this way, the number of teachers has increased by 27 percent in 10 years. In which the share of women teachers has increased from 39 percent to 45 percent.

However, the report also underlines that the number of higher education institutions in India has increased in these 10 years. In the year 2023-24, there were 1,289 universities, 48,246 colleges and 15,221 standalone institutions in India. Thus, there are a total of 64,756 higher education institutions operating in India.

34 percent of faculty posts are vacant, the highest among IIITs

According to SBI’s research report, 34 percent of the teaching posts in higher education institutions are vacant despite the increase in the total number of teachers. It is the higher education which is funded by the central government. As compared to sanctioned posts in Central Universities, 33 per cent posts are vacant. While IITs have 39 percent vacancies, IIITs 54 percent, NITs 29 percent and IIMs 31 percent, IISERs have 7 percent vacancies.

At the same time, the report also underlines UNESCO’s comments, which state that the world will need 44 million more primary and secondary teachers by 2030.

The student-teacher ratio in India is 23

The SBI research report also highlighted the student-teacher ratio (PTR) in higher education in the year 2023-24, under which the national PTR was recorded at 23, while the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education indicated 15:1 as the ideal PTR for higher education. PTR is very weak in many states. In which this ratio was very high in Bihar i.e. 57 and in Jharkhand it was 48. PTR was 33 in Uttar Pradesh. While Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa recorded PTR 14.