Despite official assurances and repeated transfer orders, 28 children in a Himachal village have been waiting nearly two months for a single permanent teacher.

Chamba, Himachal Pradesh: “This is not a school, it is a wait in which the future of our children is stuck,” said Supriya Chauhan, president of the School Management Committee (SMC) of Government Primary School, Ludera, in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba district.

Ludera village, home to around 300 residents, has just one government primary school. Twenty-eight children are enrolled. But since May 31,  not a single permanent teacher has taken charge. The school has not been officially shut, but its functioning depends entirely on stopgap deputations from nearby schools, with one teacher sent today, another the next, or sometimes none at all.

According to parents, the crisis has been building for years. In 2021, one of the two sanctioned Junior Basic Training (JBT) teacher posts at Ludera fell vacant. For four years, the school limped along under the lone remaining teacher, Shri Ram, who managed all teaching and administrative responsibilities alone. When he retired on May 31 this year, even that fragile arrangement collapsed.

Since then, despite multiple official orders, no teacher has joined.

In June alone, the office of the Deputy Director of Elementary Education, Chamba, issued three transfer orders for Ludera. On June 4, Ashok Kumar was transferred from Tarala School; on June 21, Rakesh Kumar from Manhota, and on June 30, Deep Kumar. Each order clearly stated that the school should not be left without a teacher.

Yet none of them reported for duty.

Ludera village, home to around 300 residents, has just one government primary school (Photo - Surinder Kumar, 101Reporters)

On paper

The Ludera SMC, which is made up of parents, community members, and school staff and is tasked with monitoring the school’s functioning and coordinating with the education department, said that it has raised this concern with local authorities several times. 

“Ashok Kumar had already completed two years at his previous school, which made him eligible for transfer,” said Vipin Thakur, a parent. “Ludera is even closer to his home. But he didn’t join. Then Rakesh Kumar didn’t come either. Why is this being allowed?”

This question remains unanswered. 

What followed only deepened the confusion. On June 30, the transfer of Deep Kumar was accompanied by the cancellation of the earlier transfers of Ashok Kumar and Rakesh Kumar, citing “public interest”. Parents say they are unable to understand how a school with zero teachers is not the top priority.

In the meantime, even short-term solutions have failed. Teachers from the Dhimala Central School, which oversees Ludera, are occasionally deputed, but the arrangement is inconsistent, especially when those teachers are already overstretched. The nearest functional school is in Dhimala, 3 km away, a long and often difficult walk for young children.

So far, administrative assurances have brought little change.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of Chamba, Amit Mehra, told 101Reporters that Tarala’s SMC had objected to Ashok Kumar’s transfer, fearing staff shortages. But even accounting for those concerns, Tarala reportedly retained enough teachers to meet the pupil-teacher ratio, while Ludera had none.

Parents say they feel abandoned.

“We hear that Himachal is called a model education state in the media,” said Chauhan. “But our school ran with just one teacher for four years, and now not even that. Where is the place for our children in this model?”

Kids in the classroom with no teacher (Photo - Surinder Kumar, 101Reporters)

Promises and protests

Vipin Thakur told 101Reporters that Ludera residents moved the Himachal Pradesh High Court over the issue raising the issue of administrative negligence, political interference, and the lack of accountability around transfer orders that were never implemented.

Judge Sandeep Sharma on July 26, 2025 directed the state to file a reply in four weeks stating why teachers are not being posted at the school in Ludera.

According to Rajendra Singh, a retired teacher, with over three decades of experience, the breakdown reflects deeper systemic failures.

“If public interest is cited in the orders, why isn’t it being enforced?” he asked. “No one is monitoring the implementation. The system in Chamba is too slow, and too indifferent.”

“The administration is not serious, not about the orders, not about the children,” added Anil Kumar, whose children study at the school. 

Earlier, on June 19 and 20, frustrated by continued inaction, parents and SMC members took their complaints directly to the Deputy Commissioner of Chamba Mukesh Repaswal “We were verbally assured that action would be taken soon,” said Joginder Singh, whose two children study at the school. “But nothing changed.”

As a mark of protest, parents withheld their children from attending school for those two days.

Under the Right to Education Act, 2009, the government is obligated to provide education to every child between the ages of 6 and 14. But Ludera remains without a permanent teacher more than seven weeks after Shri Ram’s retirement.

National data also challenges Himachal’s model state narrative. According to the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 report, Himachal Pradesh scored only 54.2 out of 240 in learning outcomes: a category that evaluates basic reading and math skills. The score for governance processes, including school-level administration and policy implementation, was even lower: 44.6.

“This is the real face of the education system,” said Nisha Devi, a parent. “If this politics of inaction and pretense is not stopped now, the next generation will know education only as something written in books, not as something they actually receive.”

Rita Devi, whose two children also attend the school, added: “If the government cannot even provide teachers, it should just declare the school shut. How long will this farce go on?”

Children are still waiting for their teachers (Photo - Surinder Kumar, 101Reporters)

On the sidelines

Nearly 40% of Ludera’s students belong to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. For these families, education is the only out of poverty.

“We are poor,” said Subhash, a parent from the Scheduled Caste community. “But we want our children to study and move forward. The government says we’ll be given priority, but look what’s happening…where are the teachers?”

Locals say they have taken their complaints as far as the Director of School Education, Ashish Kohli, who has reportedly promised to consult with the Deputy Director and take necessary action.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the Dhimala Panchayat, led by advocate Surjit Bharmauri, submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Chamba. Bharmauri said: “Negligence in something as basic as education cannot be tolerated. Policies made at the top are not being implemented where it matters most.”

“Twenty-eight children are still waiting for a teacher,” he added. “When one was finally transferred here, even that was blocked. How long will education remain a victim of politics?”

Cover photo - Students playing outside the school building (Photo - Surinder Kumar, 101Reporters)