Question : Student-Teacher Ratio

(a) whether it is a fact that the students-teacher ratio needs to be improved in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether it is a fact that thousands of posts of teachers are lying vacant in primary schools resulting in only 49.3 per cent schools meeting the criteria of student-teacher ratio and if so, the details of student-teacher ratio and class-student ratio in the country, State/UT-wise;

(c) whether the Government would be able to implement Right to Education Act effectively in this manner; and

(d) if so, the schemes/programmes formulated/proposed to be formulated by the Government for this purpose?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI UPENDRA KUSHWAHA)

(a) : The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has been enacted for universalization of elementary education i.e for classes I to VIII across the country. 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 should be 30:1 and at the upper primary level it should be 35:1.

As per the Unified District Information System For Education (UDISE) 2015-16 (Provisional), the PTR at national level for primary schools is 23:1 and upper primary schools is 1:17, which is better than the norm laid down in the RTE Act, 2009.

(b): As per UDISE 2015-16 (provisional), 33.9% of elementary Government schools have adverse PTR. The State-wise details of PTR and average student-classroom ratio at primary level are at Annexure.

(c) & (d): As reported by States and UTs, there are 17.51% posts of teachers lying vacant at elementary level . The recruitment, service conditions and deployment of teachers are primarily in the domain of the State Governments and UT Administrations. However, the Central Government through the flagship programmes of Sarva Shiksa Abhiyan (SSA) at elementary level and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) at secondary level, provides assistance to the State Governments and UTs for additional teachers to maintain appropriate Pupil Teacher Ratio as per the prescribed norms for various levels of schooling.

The Central Government has been consistently pursuing the matter of expeditious recruitment and redeployment of teachers and to implement norms of the RTE Act 2009 with the States and UTs at various fora. Advisories to implement various norms of the RTE Act have also been issued to States and UTs from time to time.

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