Dismal Scenario Of Student Teacher Ratio In India
According to Ministry of Human Resources and Development, the pupil to teacher ratio should be 30:1 and 35:1 for primary and upper primary classes respectively.
On paper this target has been achieved by the country in a span of seven years. However there are a certain percentage of schools, approximately one third of primary schools in the country, who still have higher pupil to teacher ratio than the recommended figure.
According to the report by the ministry, some schools have lesser number of teachers than the required number; however the main issue is their correct deployment.
According to the District Information System for Education report (DISE), almost 30 per cent primary schools and 15 per cent upper primary schools have a higher pupil to teacher ratio than the stipulated figure of 30:1 and 35:1 respectively.
A 2014 survey carried out by the Maharashtra state education department found that PTR in government run schools was 30:1 while many privately run schools had a pupil to teacher ratio of 50:1 because of a higher enrollment rate in private schools.
A smaller classroom allows the teacher to focus a lot more on each and every child and thus makes the classroom more conducive to learning and teaching. Thus, it is important and quite necessary for the pupil to student ratio to remain as low as possible, at least according to the stipulated figures by MHRD.
A study held at 1880 government run schools in Karnataka revealed that schools with a PTR between 10 and 20 had the best learning outcome. These results dropped when the PTR was increased to 30.
The DISE report also specifies that 8.32 per cent schools in the country have just one teacher and out of every 100 teachers, 7 are employed on contractual basis with a huge number of teachers lacking proper professional qualifications as well.
