Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation's education department is grappling with a severe shortage of teachers, with 42% of positions remaining unfilled.

This crisis is impacting the quality of education in the 43 schools run by the Secondary and Technical Education Department, which serve around 15,000 students from economically weaker sections who cannot afford private school fees.

According to the Education Department, 535 positions have been sanctioned for the Secondary and Technical Education Department, but only 227 of these positions are currently filled.

As a result, individual staff members are burdened with double the workload. Despite an annual expenditure of ₹125 crore on the municipal secondary education department, the lack of sufficient staff is negatively impacting educational quality.

In the city, about 28% of families live in slums. Many children from these families drop out of school after completing primary education because they cannot afford private school fees.

They often end up working as child laborers and, without any vocational training, remain unemployed in the future. To combat this issue, the municipal corporation established the Secondary Education Department to provide free secondary, higher secondary, and technical education opportunities to these children.

However, the original purpose is being defeated due to the lack of teachers and staff. Specifically, 299 teachers are required for 41 schools, but only 133 teachers are currently managing the operations. Additionally, positions such as librarians, laboratory assistants, and ITI instructors remain vacant.