One Lakh Government Primary And Secondary Schools In The Country Having Only One Teacher

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 

MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT 

DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY 

LOK SABHA 

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4300 

TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.01.2019 

Single Teacher Schools 

4300. SHRI KRUPAL BALAJI TUMANE 

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: 

• (a) whether there are more than one lakh Government primary and secondary schools in the country having only one teacher and if so, the details of such schools, State/UT-wise; 

• (b) the scheme being formulated by the Government supplement the efforts being made by the States particularly in respect of such schools; and 

• (c) whether any special scheme is likely to be implemented to ensure proper student teacher ratio in such schools and if so, the details thereof? 

ANSWER 

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF 

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT 

(DR. SATYA PAL SINGH) 

(a)  As per Unified District Information System of Education (UDISE), 2016-17 (Provisional), there are 92275 single-teacher Government schools at both elementary level and secondary level. State/UT- wise details of such schools are at Annexure. 

(b) & (c)  The RTE Act, 2009 in its Schedule lays down Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) for both primary and upper primary schools. At primary level, the PTR norm is 30:1 and at the upper primary level it is 35:1. As per the Unified District Information System For Education (UDISE) 2015-16, the PTR at national level for primary schools is 23:1, for upper primary schools is 17:1 and for Secondary level is 27:1. However, the recruitment, service conditions and redeployment of teachers are primarily in the domain of respective State Governments and Union Territories (UT) Administrations. The Central Government through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha provides assistance to State Governments/UTs for additional teachers to maintain appropriate Pupil Teacher Ratio as per the requirements of the States/UTs. The Central Government has been consistently pursuing the matter of expeditious recruitment and redeployment of teachers with the States and UTs at various fora. Advisories on this issue have also been issued to States and UTs from time to time. 

The steps taken by the Central Government to improve teachers’ performance include, inter alia, regular in-service teachers’ training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, academic support for teachers and monitoring teachers’ attendance through School Management Committees/School Management Development Committees/Block Resource Centres/Clusters Resource Centres. States and UTs are also encouraged to use digital technology like installation of Bio-metric attendance system in schools.