Uttarakhand government lifts recruitment freeze for aided schools

The Uttarakhand government announced on Sunday, October 25, 2026, the lifting of a long-standing freeze on recruitment for vacant teaching and non-teaching positions in aided non-government secondary schools across the state. This decision makes possible for a new recruitment drive aimed at strengthening the state’s education system and ensuring the availability of human resources.

The move comes in an election year and is intended to support the appointment of regular teachers and staff, addressing challenges faced by schools struggling with minimal teaching staff due to resource limitations. The announcement was confirmed by PTI news service on October 25, 2026.

Details of the Recruitment Drive

The state government’s statement highlighted that the recruitment drive would begin for vacant teaching and non-teaching positions in aided non-government secondary schools. School management committees will now have the authority to fill vacant positions in their respective institutions. Dhan Singh Rawat, the state’s School Education Minister, emphasized that the decision was made with the interests of students in mind, aiming to support the appointment of regular teachers and staff across all such schools.

Recruitment will proceed only for sanctioned vacant posts that have been formally revived or restored by the competent authority. Departmental officials have been instructed to ensure strict compliance with established rules and government mandates throughout the recruitment process, which is to be conducted in a transparent, fair, and lawful manner.

Prioritising School Needs and Student Enrollment

Minister Dhan Singh Rawat stated that the actual requirements of the schools and their student enrollment figures would be given priority during the recruitment of teachers. Recruitment for teaching positions will be aligned with the number of students, ensuring both an adequate number of teachers and an improvement in the overall quality of education. This approach aims to address the issue of schools struggling to function with a minimal number of teachers due to a lack of resources, a situation that has led some school management committees to approach the High Court regarding teacher and staff recruitment.

Context of the Decision

This decision to lift the recruitment freeze is set against a backdrop of previous government orders and political promises. In February 2022, ahead of the assembly polls, the Congress party’s manifesto had pledged to end a freeze on state government jobs, noting that 28,000 positions remained unfilled at that time. An earlier Uttarakhand government order on April 27, 2025, had banned the recruitment of outsourced, contract, daily-wage, work-charge, fixed-salary, part-time, and ad-hoc employees, stipulating that vacancies must be filled only through regular appointments. Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan clarified at the time that this freeze applied solely to future hiring, with existing non-regular employees continuing in their roles.

Previously, on June 11, 2020, Uttarakhand had frozen vacancies and imposed a moratorium on fresh recruitments across all departments as part of austerity measures, also stating that no employee would receive an increment during that fiscal year. More recently, on October 10, 2026, the Uttarakhand High Court halted a UKSSSC Group-C recruitment drive until a new spinal disability sub-category was included in the reservation roster, ordering amended requisitions within 15 days.

Written by Nishit Kumar

Nishit Kumar is a senior EdTech industry leader with over a decade of experience in building and scaling education platforms, shaping their product, content, and growth strategy. At FindMyCollege, Nishit oversees content and editorial strategy, guiding topic selection and content frameworks to ensure accuracy, relevance, and student-first value across the website.

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