12,000 Schools Fail To Meet Pupil-Teacher Ratio In Assam, With Around 3,000 Single Teacher Schools

GUWAHATI: There are nearly 3,000 government elementary schools of Assam with only one teacher each while the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 and 35:1 has not been achieved yet in over 12,000 elementary schools (including lower and upper primary).

This was stated by the state government in the Assam assembly on Thursday.

To a question in the house by Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi, education minister Ranoj Pegu gave a written reply, quoting U-DISE (database about schools in the country) data that the state has 2,979 single-teacher schools.

Of the 2,979 single- teacher schools, 2,959 are lower primary (till Class V) and 20 are upper primary schools (classes VI to VIII). On the other hand, the minister’s reply revealed that in another 1,860 government primary schools there are six teachers each. Of these, 1,045 are lower primary schools, while 815 are upper primary.

Right to Education Act, 2009, stipulates that the requisite pupil-teacher ratio in lower primary schools is 30:1. In such category schools where maximum student enrolment is 60, the number of teachers should be two. If the enrolment is between 61 and 90, three teachers should be there. For enrolment between 91 and 120, the teacher number should be four but for 121 to 200, enrolment, the number of teachers should be five. The minister said if the student number is beyond 150, there should be a headmaster apart from five teachers. Even if the enrolment crosses 200, the ratio should not cross 40:1, this is excluding the head teacher.

On the other hand, in upper primary schools, the ideal ratio is 35:1.

Given the circumstances, Pegu said the number of schools that fall short of fulfilling the ratio according to RTE norms is 12,731, out of which, the number of lower primary schools is 10,781 and 1,950 are upper primary. The house was also informed that there are 207 high schools in the state which are yet to fulfil the ideal ratio of 40:1.

The pupil-teacher ratio non-compliance is found to be highest in lower primary schools. Udalguri district in Bodoland Territorial Regional tops the list with 300 single-teacher lower primary schools, followed by 240 such schools in Kokrajhar (also in BTR) and 200 in Golaghat district.

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