Context: According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Report published by Ministry of Education, Indian children are still studying in single-teacher schools which is a violation of the Right to Education Act.
| Right to Education Act, 2009 |
- The Right to Education Act stated that every child of the age six to 14 years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education.
- The Act states that every school must have at least two teachers.
- It also requires the presence of a primary school within one kilometre of every habitation.
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| Major States with Single-Teacher Schools |
- The proportion of single-teacher schools in India high at 14.7%.
- In 9 of India’s 21 major States, the share of children studying in single-teacher schools was well above 10%.
- States with high proportion of single-teacher schools:
- Andhra Pradesh (34%)
- Telangana (30%)
- Jharkhand (30%)
- Karnataka (29%)
- Haryana (27%)
- Kerela (4%) has lowest proportion of single-teacher schools.
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| Factors Responsible for Single-Teacher schools |
- States having low population density, scattered settlement patterns and low fertility rates like Haryana.
- State governments find it convenient to save money by under-staffing schools in underprivileged areas and get away with it.
- In Jharkhand, there have been no teacher appointments since 2016.
- Teacher resistance to remote postings is also a major problem.
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| Single-Teacher Schools with Large Number of Children |
States with plenty of single-teacher schools with a large number of children:
- 96 in Bihar
- 70 in Uttar Pradesh
- 46 in Jharkhand
- 39 in Madhya Pradesh
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| Major Initiative: National Education Policy 2020 |
- School Governance: Schools can be organized into clusters which will be the basic unit of governance and ensure availability of all resources including infrastructure, academic libraries and a strong professional teacher community.
- Promotions: Promotions will be merit-based, with a mechanism for multi-source periodic performance appraisals to become educational administrators or teacher educators.
- Incentives: Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBCs.
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