Ahmedabad: Gujarat education department has decided to take strict action against over 150 government school teachers who have been absent from their duties for more than a year. This decision follows after it came to light that a teacher in Banaskantha district had been missing from work for several years while living in the United States.
Among these teachers, 60 are currently living abroad. The education department has now instructed district primary education and administrative officers to terminate the services of these absent teachers by August 19.
Situation in Kutch schools
In Kutch district, where this issue is most severe, 17 teachers will have their services terminated this week. According to Kutch District Primary Education Officer (DPEO) Bhupendrasinh Vaghela, these teachers have already received three show cause notices before this final action was taken, as reported by The Indian Express.
Of the 17 teachers in Kutch, 12 are women, and five are men. Some of them have settled abroad, while others have remained absent for personal, medical, or social reasons. There are even cases where teachers officially took charge after being transferred from other districts, only to go missing afterward.
According to The Indian Express reports, data from the education department shows that Gandhinagar district has the highest number of teachers who are absent while living abroad, with 13 out of 15 such cases. Banaskantha district has 10 teachers who have been missing, and their services are expected to be terminated soon.
Banaskantha DPEO Vinubhai Patel said that these teachers were issued notices in recent days, and their services will be terminated after a seven-day waiting period.
34 teachers terminated from service in Banaskantha in 3 years
Over the past three years, Banaskantha district has terminated the services of 34 teachers who were on leave for more than a year. This district has a large number of government primary school teachers, with 17,000 sanctioned posts.
There were rumors that a teacher named Bhavna Patel from Banaskantha had been absent for years while still drawing a salary. However, DPEO Vinubhai Patel denied these claims, clarifying that Bhavna Patel has only taken leave for two to three months each year over the last four years and has not drawn a salary while on extended leave since January 1, 2024.
The issue of absent teachers in Gujarat has been a longstanding problem. From 2015 to 2020, more than 350 primary and secondary school teachers were found missing from duty without informing the government. Of these, 99 teachers were reportedly living abroad. As a result, the services of 128 teachers were terminated, and another 70 were served notices, as reported by The Indian Express.
Between 2019 and 2022, action was taken against 665 teachers who were absent for long periods, with 113 teachers being removed from service.
To address this problem, Gujarat government launched Vidya Sameeksha Kendra in June 2019. This centralized Command and Control Centre in Gandhinagar tracks the attendance of nearly 2.5 lakh teachers and 70 lakh students in over 42,000 government and aided schools. The center also monitors the work of block and cluster resource coordinators and school inspectors using GPS-enabled tablets.