The state has decided to get the exact count of the teachers working in government schools along with their period of posting.

An official said they want an idea of the pupil-teacher ratio in schools before deciding whether some teachers should be transferred.

The school education department issued an order on Wednesday.

The schools have been asked to state how long the teachers have been working in the respective institutions by January 20.

An order signed by the commissioner of the school education department said: “It has been decided by the competent authority that the rationalisation of the government school teachers will be done shortly. For the purpose of this rationalisation process, posting details of all the teachers are necessary. A portal has been developed for this purpose. You are therefore requested to enter the posting details of all the teachers posted in your schools within 20.01. 2025.”

A copy of the order has been sent to the heads of all 39 government schools.

Regular teachers of government schools have been asked to send their compliance report by January 17.

An official of the department said they also want to get an idea of the tenure for which a teacher has been posted in a school and then decide on the transfer.

“Some teachers have been teaching in a school for two decades. Such teachers could be transferred to another school. But while transferring a teacher, we will calculate the pupil-teacher ratio so the transfer does not weaken the strength of the teachers in a school. It has to be borne in mind that teaching in a government school is a transferrable job,” the official said.

The official said that unlike government-aided schools that are suffering from a poor count of students prompting the department to merge schools factoring in the pupil-teacher ratio, government schools still have many students.

The teachers of government schools are appointed through the Public Service Commission.

Teachers in government-aided schools are appointed through the school service commission.

Education minister Bratya Basu said on January 6 several government-aided schools did not have enough students and so the government planned to merge some of them.

Saugata Basu, the secretary of the government school teachers’ association, said: “The public service commission had last issued an advertisement for recruitment of teachers in government schools in 2014. As there has been no recruitment in the past 11 years, almost half the teaching positions are vacant in several schools. Instead of focusing on transfers, the department should focus on recruiting teachers to correct the teacher-student ratio.”