New Delhi, Aug 6 (IANS): There is a shortage of 1.2 million teachers in India and states must speed up the recruitment process to bridge the gap, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said Friday.

"We have a shortage of 1.2 million teachers. In some states there is an enormous backlog from last several years. In Bihar about 100,696 posts are vacant," Sibal told the Rajya Sabha during question hour.

Sibal said there was a need to speed up the recruitment process.

"In some states, we have found that all deployment (of teachers) is done in one school while there are no teachers in others. We need to redeploy teachers so that there is equal distribution of teachers," he said.

He voiced concern over the lack of enough quality institutions to train teachers.

"The problem is that not enough students are going for Bachelor of Education (BEd) course, and we also lack quality training institutions, which is adding to the problem," he said.

Sibal said there was a need to make the profession of teaching attractive by giving incentives like insurance, housing and healthcare facilities.

"Across the world, the best minds opt for teaching profession but this is not happening in India. So we need to give them more incentives," he added.