Teachers in Primary School

Stats IQ: Teachers in Primary School

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

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.
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.
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.
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
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.