Lok Sabha Question No. 4044 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-27
Subject: Quality Education in Government Schools
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: RAJ KUMAR SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4044 TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.03.2017

## Quality Education in Government Schools

## 4044. SHRI R.K. SINGH:

- Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is aware that the condition of school education is abysmal due to poor teacher-student ratio and deficient standards of teachers; (b) if so, the details thereof including the action taken by the Government; and (c)  whether the Government is also aware that the classes in Government schools in the country  are  not  held  regularly  and  if  so,  the  corrective  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the
- Government in this regard?

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

(a) & (b):  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. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) framework stipulates that the PTR at secondary level should be 30:1. As per Unified District Information System For Education (UDISE) 2015-16 (Provisional), the PTR at national level for elementary schools is 24:1 and for secondary schools it is 27:1. The PTR in most of the States and UTs is found to be satisfactory. However, since some schools have lesser number of teachers than the required PTR, it is clear that while there is sufficient number of teachers, the main issue is of their optimum deployment in schools.

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 with the States and UTs at various fora.   Advisories on this issue have also been issued to States and UTs from time to time.

Provision  for  in-service  teacher  training  is  an  integral  component  of  both  the  SSA  and RMSA programmes. Under SSA, there is provision of refresher residential or non-residential in-service training of 10 days for all teachers each year at Block Resource Centre (BRC) level and upto 10 days at Cluster Resource Centre ( CRC) level, residential Induction training for newly  recruited  teachers  for  30  days  and  training  of  untrained  teachers  to  enable  them  to acquire  professional  qualifications.  The  training  provided  to  teachers  is  subject  specific  and need based. The training modules are developed by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in the State and the training is imparted through a cascade model of the State  level  Key  Resource  Persons  training  master  trainers  at  district  level  who  then  train teachers at Block and Cluster level. The training content for Block level training is focused on concepts and methodology related to the programmes focused on improving learning outcomes. The  Cluster  level  is  a  follow-up  of  the  Block  level  training  to  help  address  issues  that  the teachers may be facing in their classroom practice.

Under RMSA, there is a provision of 10 days of in service teacher training, including 05 days of subject specific  training  and  for  the  remaining  05  days  training  on  ICT  Component, Inclusive Education, Gender Sensitization and Adolescent Education is provided. Under both SSA  and  RMSA,  the  focus  is  to  give  subject  specific,  need  based  and  relevant  in  service teacher training to both elementary and secondary teachers for their professional development.

(c): Additionally, Schedule of Norms and Standards for a school of the RTE Act, 2009 mandates for 200 working days at primary level and 220 working days at upper primary level. As per UDISE 2015-16 (provisional) at national level, schools were open for an average of 224 days at primary level and 223 days at upper primary level.

Section  24  of  the  RTE  Act,  2009  mandates  that  a  teacher  appointed  under  subsection (1) of the Section 23 shall perform the following duties, namely (a) maintain regularity and punctuality in attending school and (b) complete entire curriculum within specified time. The steps taken by the Central Government to improve teachers' attendance include, inter alia, monitoring teachers' attendance through School Management Committees/School Management Development Committees/Block Resource Centres/Clusters Resource Centres and encouraging States and UTs to use digital technology like installation of Bio-metric attendance system in schools.

*****