MUMBAI, March 19 -- A heated debate over substandard protein bars supplied to Mumbai's civic-run schools (HT, March 18, 2026) has uncovered another disturbing truth - that 128 of the 130 posts of beat officers, who play a supervisory role in these schools, are vacant. This severe shortage of beat officers is impacting monitoring at the ground level, in turn, compromising the quality of infrastructure and education in these schools. The issue emerged during the BMC's education committee meeting on Tuesday, where a discussion on substandard energy bars led to the realisation that poor quality mid-day meals served to municipal students had not been detected due to the absence of beat officers. Teachers are also concerned over the large number of vacant posts of departmental inspectors. This impacts regular monitoring of classroom teaching and evaluation of students' academic progress. According to the rules, one departmental inspector is required for every 250 teachers. Another concern raised by members is the mismatch in language-based postings. In several schools, beat officers are not assigned according to the medium of instruction. For instance, some Gujarati-medium schools have Marathi officers, while Marathi-medium schools have Urdu officers. This has made it difficult for officers to properly assess teaching methods and student understanding. Beat officers play a key role, inspecting daily operations, monitoring attendance, ensuring staff discipline and checking maintenance work. They also observe classroom teaching, review what subjects are being taught, understand how students are responding and suggest improvements wherever needed. Education committee member Ankit Prabhu said steps must be taken to fill the vacant posts at the earliest. Deputy commissioner of education Prachi Jambhekar said the administration has started the process to fill these vacancies, with plans afoot to recruit 44 officers in the first phase. However, civic officials said the recruitment process has been delayed due to the requirement of Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualifications for candidates....