New Delhi: Nearly 57% of posts at the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) have been lying vacant, data for the period 2020-2025 presented by Union minister of state (MoS) education Jayant Chaudhary in the Rajya Sabha has shown.This data was presented in the last Winter Session and was first reported by Hindustan Times‘ Sanjay Maurya on March 2.According to the data, only 1,219 of the 2,844 sanctioned posts have been filled, leaving 1,625 posts unoccupied in the concerned period.Group A posts comprise senior roles, Group B comprise mid-level roles while Group C comprises technical posts. The highest number of vacancies were in the Group C category, with a vacancy rate of 73%, followed by Group B (45%) and Group A (32%).In absolute numbers, Group C comprises 1,520 sanctioned Group C posts, of which only 411 were filled, leaving 1,109 vacancies. In Group B, 369 of the 677 sanctioned posts were occupied, resulting in 308 vacancies and In Group A, 439 of 647 posts were filled, leaving 208 vacancies.The data presented by Chaudhary also showed the number of permanent and contractual staff hired in the period 2020-2025. Over the last five years, the council hired 445 permanent staff across 229 academic and 216 non-academic posts, against 3,567 contractual staff hired in the same period.In addition to the heavy reliance on contractual appointments, no permanent staff were hired in 2020-21 and 2021-22, even as 720 and 746 contractual staff were recruited in those respective years.“The recruitment is a continuous process and efforts are made to fill up the vacancies as per the provisions of the relevant recruitment rules,” Chaudhary had said in his Rajya Sabha response.The staff shortages have come under scrutiny at a time when the NCERT is facing the judiciary’s ire over controversial sections included on “corruption in the judiciary” in its class 8 social science textbook.According to the Hindustan Times, the concerned chapter was written by a committee including a lawyer but was not reviewed by members of the legal community.Anita Rampal, former dean of the faculty of education at Delhi University, told the paper that increased reliance on contractual staff coupled with staff shortages affects people’s ability to contribute to institution-building.“When people lack job security, their motivation, institutional commitment and academic freedom suffer,” she said. “Insecure and vulnerable temporary positions make it difficult to question significant decisions or contribute meaningfully to institution-building,” Rampal added.Rampal also pointed out the delay in publishing the social science textbook and questioned the timing of its release.“The Class 8 social science Part 2 book was meant for the 2025-26 academic session and should have been available by October or November. Releasing it at the end of February 2026, just before the annual examinations – and then withdrawing it – not only reflects serious inefficiency but also callousness towards children, while it raises serious questions about the reliability of the textbook production and review process, as is being presently witnessed.”