Education & Career
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Panel finds over half of NCERT posts vacant
The Wire··13 Aug
A parliamentary Estimates Committee report tabled on August 12 said 1596 of NCERT's 2844 sanctioned posts were vacant as of October 2025, leaving a working strength of 1248. CBSE had 933 vacancies of 2117 posts, or 44 percent. The panel also noted education spending at 4.1 percent of GDP against the NEP 2020 target of 6 percent.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If your child uses NCERT books or NEP syllabi, the council that writes those frameworks is working with fewer than half its sanctioned posts filled.
- CBSE students and parents can note the panel linked contract staffing in exam work to risk for board-test integrity.
- Taxpayers can see combined Centre and state education spend at 4.1 percent of GDP, short of the 6 percent NEP 2020 goal the same report cites.
What's Happening
- The Committee on Estimates told Lok Sabha that NCERT had 1596 vacancies against 2844 posts and CBSE 933 against 2117 as of October 2025.
- It asked the ministry to treat NCERT gaps as urgent and told CBSE to end reliance on contract workers for sensitive exam duties.
- The report also recorded public education spending at 4.1 percent of GDP, below the NEP 6 percent target.
Why Vacancies at NCERT and CBSE Travel Together
- NCERT designs national curriculum frameworks and textbooks that states and CBSE-affiliated schools use to implement NEP 2020.
- CBSE is a self-funded board with 25 regional and five sub-regional offices and no regular ministry grant-in-aid, which the panel said should not justify leaving posts empty.
- By 2025 the board was running exams for more than 1.70 million Class XII and 2.38 million Class X candidates across 31234 schools.
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