Odisha’s Adarsha Vidyalayas Struggle With Massive Staff Shortage

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s flagship Adarsha Vidyalayas—established to provide high-quality education in rural and semi-urban regions—are grappling with a critical shortage of teaching and administrative personnel, severely impacting their functioning. This stark reality was placed before the State Legislative Assembly by school and mass education minister Suryabanshi Suraj, who revealed widespread vacancies across leadership and faculty positions.

Presenting district-wise data from all 315 Adarsha Vidyalayas, the Minister disclosed that the crisis begins at the top. Of the 315 sanctioned Principal posts, a staggering 261 remain unfilled, leaving most schools without permanent administrative heads. This vacuum, he noted, has slowed decision-making, disrupted monitoring mechanisms, and hampered academic leadership at the institutional level.

The situation is similar with Vice-Principals—vital for academic planning, supervision, and daily school management. Out of the sanctioned posts, 185 positions are vacant across the state. The combined shortage of Principals and Vice-Principals means that a majority of these model schools are functioning without essential leadership structures, raising concerns about discipline, academic oversight, and the implementation of curricular and co-curricular programmes.

The problem extends deep into the teaching cadre as well. The minister’s statement revealed that 883 Post Graduate Teacher (PGT) posts and 665 Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) posts have not been filled. These gaps are particularly worrying for core subjects such as mathematics, science, and English, where the absence of specialised teachers directly affects learning outcomes. Many schools, as a result, are relying on guest faculty or existing teachers who are taking on additional workloads, often leading to inconsistencies in academic delivery.

The minister assured the House that the government is taking steps to accelerate recruitments and strengthen the human resource pool of Adarsha Vidyalayas. He emphasised that the vacancy problem is statewide, not localised, and that the administration is committed to restoring full staffing levels.

Parents, educationists, and local communities are now urging the government to prioritise timely recruitment, warning that prolonged shortages risk undermining the objectives of these model schools, which were envisioned to provide quality education and equal opportunities to students across Odisha.