Question : TEACHER-STUDENT RATIO

(a) whether under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, the prescribed norms regarding pupil teacher-ratio are required to be in place within six months of the enforcement of the Act;

(b) if so, the facts thereof;

(c) whether the Government has received requests from various State Governments including Orissa for approval of additional teachers to fulfill the requirements of the Act;

(d) if so, the details thereof, State-wise;

(e) whether directions have been issued to the State Governments to recruit adequate number of teachers;

(f) if so, the details thereof alongwith the allocations proposed to be made, State-wise; and

(g) the steps being taken for timely accomplishment of provisions of the Act to avoid litigation?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT(SMT. D. PURANDESWARI)

(a) to (b): Section 25(1) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 stipulates that the appropriate Government shall ensure that the pupil teacher ratio as specified in the schedule to the RTE Act is maintained in each school within six months from the commencement of the Act. The Government has issued a guideline under section 35(1) of the RTE Act clarifying that for the purposes of maintaining the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR), the States may within a period of six months (a) rationalize the deployment of existing teachers to address the problems of urban-rural imbalance and other spatial imbalances in teacher placements, and (b) initiate the process of recruitment of new teachers to fill vacant posts as per the PTR stipulated in the schedule to the RTE Act.

(c) to (g) The Government has considered proposals for additional teachers by States by holding meetings of the Project Approval Board for Supplementary Plans, 2010-11. The total number of additional teachers sanctioned in 2010-11 is 4,55,162. A statement showing State-wise details of additional teachers, including for the State of Orissa, sanctioned in the year 2010-11 is given in Annexure. All States have been asked to expedite the teacher re-deployment and recruitment processes.