Govt to fill 34,000 vacant headteacher posts in primary schools after pay upgrade

A total of 31,459 of the vacant posts will be filled through promotion once an ongoing legal dispute is resolved

Following the pay hike for head teachers, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has announced plans to fill over 34,000 vacant headteacher positions in government primary schools.

According to a media statement issued on Tuesday, the ministry has already sent a requisition letter to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to recruit 2,382 candidates for direct appointment.

The remaining posts will be filled through internal promotions once an ongoing legal dispute is resolved.

There are 65,569 government primary schools under the ministry’s jurisdiction, with an approved headteacher position in 65,502 of them.

Currently, 31,396 head teachers are in service, leaving 34,106 posts vacant.

Of these, 2,647 positions are eligible for direct recruitment. After reserving 10 percent of those for special quotas, 2,382 posts have been cleared for direct appointment.

The PSC is expected to publish a recruitment circular for these positions soon.

The ministry also said once a civil appeal regarding the gradation of nationalised teachers is resolved, 31,459 of the vacant posts will be filled through promotion from among eligible assistant teachers.

The ministry believes this recruitment process will help alleviate the staffing shortage across the country’s primary schools.

On Monday, the government officially upgraded the pay scale of all 65,502 headteacher positions, raising trained head teachers from grade 11 and untrained ones from grade 12 to grade 10.