Contract teachers stage protest after rally to seek regularization of jobs, in Puducherry February 3, 2026 | Photo credit: KUMAR SS
For more than a week, contractual teachers in Puducherry have been protesting against the regularization of their jobs. On February 3, their protest march towards the Assembly was stopped by the police. The protest in Puducherry is the latest in a series of demonstrations by contractual teachers across the country demanding fair treatment and regularization of their jobs.
Less than a year ago, contract teachers staged protest demonstrations for more than four days in Puducherry near the Assembly. They called off their agitation after Chief Minister N. Rangasamy assured them of the government’s commitment to regularize their jobs.
Months later, in November 2025, Puducherry Home and Education Minister A. Namassivayam said the government planned to regularize the services of 292 contract teachers. Nevertheless, there are protests again this year.
The incident in Puducherry is just the latest point in a wider national struggle by contract teachers, which includes Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Jharkhand, over unfair treatment and lack of permanent posts at various points in time.
Contract teachers, often referred to as para teachers, guest teachers and shiksha mitras, were initially hired by states to address teacher shortages in the early 1990s. These teachers were employed on a short-term basis for a lower salary than regular teachers.
According to the latest UDISE+ data, contract and part-time teachers make up about 16% of the teaching workforce in India today. In absolute terms, this means more than 16 million teachers hired at lower wages.
These contracts are often extended, and contract teachers continue to work the same as regular teachers without the benefits that come with their position, such as higher pay and stability. Research reports indicate that hiring contract teachers has become a cost-effective step for states to ensure teacher availability.
In fact, a World Bank research report published in 2009 stated that contract teachers’ salaries were a quarter or less than those of regular teachers.
While these teachers make up only 16% of the total workforce, school-level analysis shows that the problem is more pronounced in specific areas. In India’s more than 1.5 thousand schools, contract and part-time teachers make up at least half of all teaching staff.
As the chart below shows, in around 21% of private schools, at least half of the workforce is made up of contract or part-time teachers – the highest proportion of any school type. Almost 8% of state government schools also fall into this category, totaling more than 77,000 schools.
According to the latest data from 2024-25, the trend is similar in rural and urban areas, which is an interesting fact as it shows that teacher shortage alone cannot be the reason for hiring contract teachers.
The chart below shows the proportion of schools in a state/UT where contract and part-time teachers make up at least half of the workforce.
Statistical analysis shows that most of these schools with higher dependence on contract and part-time teachers are concentrated in North-Eastern states like Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
More than 30% of schools in Jharkhand, Haryana and Chandigarh also show this trend.
On November 14 last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had held that the administration could not “misuse” the contractual designation and ordered the regularization of all Chandigarh teachers appointed under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan who had completed more than 10 years of service.
Published – 6 Feb 2026 07:00 IST
