Hundreds of teacher posts lost in Kerala as over 56,000 students fail to submit Aadhaar

Thiruvananthapuram: Hundreds of teacher posts in government and aided schools in Kerala have been lost despite these institutions having an adequate number of students, due to an issue related to Aadhaar cards. According to records, a total of 56,218 students across the state were not considered during staff fixation, even at the fag end of the academic year, as they could not produce UID (Aadhaar) documents, leading to the loss of teacher posts.

The Kerala Education Rules state that only students who produce their UID on the sixth working day of the academic year will be counted for deciding staff fixation. In the current academic year (2025–26), a total of 34,03,633 students produced proper Aadhaar documents on the sixth working day.

General Education Minister V Sivankutty later informed the Assembly that 57,130 students either lacked Aadhaar or possessed faulty documents. Subsequently, the government decided to consider students who presented proper UID documents until July 15, 2025, for staff fixation. However, a mere 912 students could be included under this exercise. Even then, 175 teacher posts, which had earlier been lost during the first phase of staff fixation, were protected. Similarly, 15 schools that had been declared ‘uneconomic’ escaped that category.

Incidentally, although the Education Department had decided to grant this concession during the first term of the academic year itself, following pressure from teachers’ organisations, the order was issued only in early February 2026.

Teachers’ organisations pointed out that while 175 posts had been retained by including 912 students, hundreds of additional posts could have been protected by considering the UID documents of the remaining 50,000-odd students.

“Considering the delay in staff fixation, the government should have given more time for students to produce their Aadhaar,” said an office-bearer of a teachers’ organisation.

“Loss of teacher posts could also have been avoided by considering authentic government documents such as birth certificates for staff fixation,” he added.