Question : SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

(a) whether there is an acute shortage of teachers in primary, upper primary and secondary level schools in the country including rural areas and if so, the details thereof particularly in rural areas and the reasons therefor;

(b) the number of teachers required/short in these level schools including Central Schools during the last three years and the current year, State-wise;

(c) whether the Government has assessed the student- teacher ratio in the country and if so, the details thereof, State/ UT-wise;

(d) whether the students are not getting quality education due to shortage of teachers and if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether the Government proposes to set up schools under PPP mode to impart quality education in the country particularly in rural areas and if so, the details thereof; and

(f) the details of the action taken or being taken by the Government to meet the said shortage?

MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (f): Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a centrally sponsored scheme is implemented across the country in rural as well as urban areas. A total of 19.85 lakhs additional teacher posts have been sanctioned till date, under SSA to ensure the Pupil-Teacher Ratio as stipulated in the Right of Children to Free and Compu- lsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, against which 15.06 lakhs teacher posts have been filled up by States/UTs upto 31.03.2014.

Under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), so far, 107676 teachers have been sanctioned for gove- rnment secondary schools for upgraded/new schools and additional teachers for existing government secondary schools. Out of these sanctioned teacher posts, 70917 teacher posts have been filled up by the States/UTs upto 31.03.2014.

The reasons for shortage of teachers include, inter alia, delays in teacher recruitment processes, shortage of Teacher Education Institutions, non-availability of professionally qualified persons and non-passing of Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) by sufficient number of candidates.

The number of teacher posts sanctioned, filled up and vacant under SSA and RMSA are given at Annexure-I. In addition, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) has rec- ruited 3837 teachers and recruitment process is at the final stage for recruiting 1797 additional teachers. Also, 5814 posts of teachers in various categories have been filled up on contractual basis so that studies of students does not suffer.

As per Unified District Information System for Educa- tion (U-DISE) 2013-14, the PTR at elementary and seco- ndary level in the country is 1:26 and 1:26 respectively. State break-up is at Annexure-II.

Central government continuously pursues and takes up the issue of filling up of vacant teacher positions with the respective State government/UTs as this lies in the domain of State governments.

The Model School Scheme was launched in 2009-10 under which 2490 model schools have been approved for the States and of which 1087 are functional.