With more than 10,000 vacancies, Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) across India are grappling with a staffing crunch. As shared in the Lok Sabha by the Ministry of Education (MoE), there are 8,457 teaching positions and 1,716 non-teaching positions vacant as of November 1, 2025. From the sanctioned posts of 56,520, KVs were able to fill 46,347 posts, which include both teaching and non-teaching staff.
Under teaching, the highest recruitment based on category was for unreserved candidates with 17,427, followed by Other Backwards Classes (13,211), EWS (11,14), SC (7,235), and ST (2,970).
| Category | Sanctioned Posts | Staff in Position | Vacant Posts |
| Teaching Staff | 50414 | 41957 | 8457 |
| Non-Teaching Staff | 6106 | 4390 | 1716 |
| Total | 56520 | 46347 | 10173 |
As said in the Lok Sabha, the vacancies in KV keep on arising due to the opening of new Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), retirement, resignation, promotion of employees, transfer, employees going on lien to another department, and up-gradation of schools. Due to this, filling up of vacancies is a continuous process, and efforts are made to fill up the vacancies as per the provisions of the relevant recruitment rules.
Since 2014, there have been 30,876 recruitments under the teaching staff. On the other hand, the total recruitment listed across all years, categories, and post types since the above-mentioned year is 33,350.
As shared in the table below, the year 2022-23 was the largest recruitment cycle with a total of 11,733 teachers recruited for KVs.
| Year | Posts | UR | EWS | OBC | SC | ST | TOTAL |
| 2014-15* | Teaching | 52 | 0 | 23 | 12 | 6 | 93 |
| Non-Teaching | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 2015-16* | Teaching | 1926 | 0 | 997 | 571 | 290 | 3784 |
| Non-Teaching | 280 | 0 | 151 | 84 | 40 | 555 | |
| 2016-17 | Teaching | 3202 | 0 | 1618 | 915 | 458 | 6193 |
| Non-Teaching | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2017-18 | Teaching | 4522 | 0 | 2468 | 1387 | 696 | 9073 |
| Non-Teaching | 399 | 0 | 206 | 119 | 59 | 783 | |
| 2022-23 | Teaching | 4865 | 1114 | 3116 | 1769 | 869 | 11733 |
| Non-Teaching | 455 | 119 | 324 | 176 | 60 | 1134 | |
| TOTAL | 15702 | 1233 | 8903 | 5033 | 2479 | 33350 |
Contractual teachers in KVs
As mentioned in the data shared by the Ministry, to prevent disruption in the teaching-learning process, Kendriya Vidyalayas appoint teachers on a contractual basis at the local level whenever regular or leave vacancies arise. These appointments are temporary till the time a regular incumbent joins, and therefore, the tenure of contractual teachers cannot be fixed in advance.
| S.No. | Academic Session | Number of contractual teachers engaged against sanctioned posts |
| 1. | 2014-15 | 7534 |
| 2. | 2015-16 | 7873 |
| 3. | 2016-17 | 9061 |
| 4. | 2017-18 | 7568 |
| 5. | 2018-19 | 9539 |
| 6. | 2019-20 | 8912 |
| 7. | 2020-21 | 3260 |
| 8. | 2021-22 | 8105 |
| 9. | 2022-23 | 10462 |
| 10. | 2023-24 | 3404 |
| 11. | 2024-25 | 6920 |
The academic session 2018-19 had the highest engagement figure before the pandemic and subsequent large recruitment drives, with 9,539 teachers. It is also pertinent to note that in the year 2022-23, a total of 11,733 offers and appointments were made, and from the total, 10,462 contractual teachers were appointed. This is the highest ever recruitment of contractual teachers made by KV, since 2014. As of 2024-2025, there are 6,920 contractual teachers in KVs.
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The Government of India sanctioned 85 new KVs in December 2024 and 57 new KVs in October 2025. Furthermore, the government is transforming Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVs) into model institutions under the PM SHRI scheme.
Read | Drop in admissions in Kendriya Vidyalayas: Govt in Lok Sabha
While the government is developing new KVs, there has been a decline in admissions in Kendriya Vidyalayas, as per a written reply by the Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy. The question asked by BK Parthasarathi from the Telugu Desam Party and Sudha R from Congress in August 2025 highlights that there are 1280 Kendriya Vidyalayas functioning in the country, with 13,50,518 students studying in those educational institutions.
The number of new students enrolled in Kendriya Vidyalayas has seen a noticeable decline over the past five academic years. In 2020–21, admissions stood at 1,95,081, but this figure gradually fell to 1,82,846 in 2021–22 and further to 1,57,914 in 2022–23. Although there was a slight recovery in 2023–24 with 1,75,386 new enrollments, the numbers dropped sharply again in 2024–25, reaching a five-year low of 1,39,660. This downward trend indicates a consistent dip in fresh admissions, with the latest figure showing a reduction of over 55,000 students compared to 2020–21.
