Chennai, Jun 5 (IANS): AIADMK General Secretary K. Palaniswami on Monday urged the Tamil Nadu School Education Department to fill up teacher vacancies in the state at the earliest.

In a statement, the former Chief Minister said that over 12,000 teaching posts are vacant while there are lakhs of qualified teachers in the state waiting for a posting.

He said that many teacher organisations have stated that there were more than 1,000 headmaster posts were vacant in Tamil Nadu's secondary and higher secondary schools.

Palaniswami also said that instead of 35-40 students in every class, 60 students are in a class due to the shortage of staff, claiming that due to the higher student strength, teachers were not able to control classes properly and was affecting the quality of teaching.

He questioned the status of a committee constituted by the DMK government to look into the huge number of students not appearing in the board exams. Around 50,000 students of Class 10 and Class 12 did not appear for the board examinations.

He said that the DMK government should take immediate action to settle the issue of a large number of teacher vacancies in the state as parents were anxious about their children's studies and future.