Surkhet, Dec. 20 -- Shortages of subject teachers in community schools across Karnali, the country's biggest and remotest province, have paralysed classroom teaching, forcing thousands of students preparing for the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) to depend on private tuition centres. School administrators, education authorities and people's representatives admit that they are at their wit's end with the chronic issue.

Rupadevi Secondary School in Naraharinath-7 of Kalikot district advertised for a mathematics teacher for the 19th time on November 16. Since April, the school has repeatedly issued vacancy notices at 15-day intervals under the federal grant quota, but not a single application has been received.

"No matter how many ti...