Punjab's Education Revolution Exposed: Over 40% Posts Vacant in Teacher Training Institutes: Pargat

Jalandhar, July 29, 2026: Former Education Minister and MLA Pargat Singh criticised the Punjab Government over the fact that more than 40 percent of academic posts in the state's teacher training institutions are lying vacant, calling it an extremely alarming situation for Punjab's education system. He said that the same government which made grand claims of bringing about an "education revolution" has, under its own administration, allowed the very institutions responsible for training teachers to suffer from an acute shortage of faculty.
Similarly, more than 18,000 teaching posts are lying vacant in Punjab's government schools. The districts most affected include Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar. The shortage is also severe in the state's five border districts. According to available data, Punjab has a total of 1,03,000 sanctioned government teaching posts, of which 17.48 percent remain vacant. This clearly shows the government's lack of attention to the issue. Instead, the government appears to be more focused on using force against protesters.
He said that a review conducted by the Central Government revealed that 31 percent of academic posts in the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and 45 percent of academic posts in the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) are vacant. He said this is not merely a statistic but clear evidence that the government has completely neglected the state's teacher training infrastructure. When teacher training institutions themselves lack qualified faculty, the government's claims of providing quality education in government schools become nothing more than empty rhetoric.
Pargat Singh further stated that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has also expressed concern in its report over the severe shortage of staff in teacher training institutions. Despite this, the state government has failed to take any concrete steps to improve the situation. He said that if the government is genuinely committed to education reform, it must move beyond publicity campaigns and focus on strengthening institutional capacity.
He demanded that the Punjab Government immediately recruit qualified and trained faculty to fill all vacant academic positions in SCERT and all DIETs, so that the teacher training system can be strengthened. He added that while the government is spending crores of rupees on advertisements to promote its education model, the ground reality is that vacancies in teacher training institutions have remained unfilled for years.