Lok Sabha Question No. 125 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-18
Subject: Norms for Educational Institution
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Nihal Chand Chauhan

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 125 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 th  November, 2019

## Norms for Educational Institutions

## 125. SHRI NIHAL CHAND :

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  has  fixed  any  norms  for  educational  institutions  engaged  in imparting compulsory elementary education in the country;

(b)  whether  the  Government  has  formulated  any  system  to  gauge  the  quality  of  education system of the private and public education Institutions;

(c) if so, the details thereof; and

(d) the steps taken by the Government to improve the quality of education system?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL 'NISHANK')

(a):  The  Right  of  Children  to  Free  and  Compulsory  Education  (RTE)  Act,  2009,  which represents  the  consequential  legislation  envisaged  under Article  21-A,  mandates  that  every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school. Section 18 and 19 of RTE Act, specify certain essential norms and standards for educational institutions imparting compulsory elementary education ( Annexure-I) . These include norms for number of teachers, minimum number of working days, Teaching Learning equipment, library, play material, games and sports equipment, school organisation as well as infrastructure.

(b) and (c):  The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 lays down the duties of the appropriate Government and the local authority to ensure that good quality elementary education conforming to norms and standards is provided, curriculum and courses of study are prescribed in a timely manner, and teachers are trained. In order to focus on quality education, the Central RTE Rules have been amended on 20th February, 2017 to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes.

To guage  the quality  of  Education,  National  Council  for  Educational  Research  and Training  (NCERT)  has  conducted  National  Achievement  Survey  (NAS)  based  on  these learning outcomes for Classes III, V and VIII on 13 th November, 2017 to enable States/UTs to identify gaps in learning outcomes at district level and design strategies to address those gaps. Similarly, NAS for Class X was conducted on 5 th February, 2018.

(d): The Central Government has taken several steps to improve the quality of education and to ensure mastering of competencies:

- (i) In  order  to  focus  on  ensuring  competencies,  the  Central  rules  to  the  Right  of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 have been amended to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes, which have, accordingly, been finalized and shared with all States and UTs.
- (ii) Under Samagra Shiksha, funds are given to all States and UTs for strengthening of infrastructure and provision of other facilities in schools to ensure that all schools meet the prescribed norms, besides other interventions to improve the quality of education  such  as  training  of  in-service  teachers,  headmasters  and  principals, remedial teaching for academically weaker students, provision of library grants to schools, ICT and digital initiatives, strengthening of teacher education institutions, Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat, etc.
- (iii) The  online  D.El.Ed.  course  was  started  from  3rd  October,  2017  and  9,58,513 teachers have successfully completed the training.
- (iv) Regulations  for  a  four  year  B.Ed  integrated  course,  to  bring  about  qualitative improvement in teacher education, have been published in official gazette on 29 th March, 2019 and applications have been invited w.e.f. 3 rd June, 2019.
- (v) It  has  been  decided  to  participate  in  the  Programme  for  International  Students Assessment (PISA) to be conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation  and  Development  (OECD)  in  2021,  which  is  a  competency  based assessment.
- (vi) Approval  has  been  given for  conducting  a  Census  based  audit  of  school infrastructure  called Shagunotsav of  all  government  and  government  aided schools in all States and UTs.
- (vii) MHRD has designed a 70 indicators based matrix called Performance Grading Index (PGI) to grade the States/UTs.
- (viii) In  2019-20,  approval  has  been  given  for NISHTHA  (National  Initiative  for School  Heads  and  Teachers  Holistic  Advancement), an  Integrated  Teacher Training  Programme  to  train  42  lakh  teachers,  and  other  functionaries  to  make classrooms  learner-friendly  and  improving  children's  competencies  including critical  thinking,  problem  solving, creativity,  as  well  as  social-personal qualities such as cooperation, team work etc.

## Annexure-I

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.  125  TO  BE  ANSWERED  ON  18.11.2019  ASKED  BY  SHRI  NIHAL  CHAND  REGARDING NORMS FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

Norms and Standards for a School as per RTE Act, 2009 under Section 19 and 25.

|   Sl. No. | Item                                                                                      | Norms and Standards                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Norms and Standards                                                                                                                                                              |
|-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | Number of teachers (a) For first class to fifth class (b) For sixth class to eighth class | Admitted children Upto Sixty Between sixty-one to ninety Between Ninety-one to one hundred and twenty Between One hundred and twenty-one to two hundred Above One hundred and fifty children Above Two hundred children (1) At least one teacher per class so that there shall be at least one teacher each for - (i) Science and Mathematics. (ii) Social Studies; (iii) Languages. (2) At least one teacher for every thirty-five children. (3) Where admission of children is above one hundred - (i) a full time head-teacher (ii) Part time instructors for - (A) Art Education; (B) Health and Physical Education; | Number of teachers Two Three Four Five Five plus one Head- teacher Pupil-Teacher Ratio (excluding Head- teacher) shall not exceed forty                                          |
|         2 | Building                                                                                  | (C) Work Education All -weather building consisting of - i) at least one class room for every teacher and an office-cum- store-cum-Head teacher's room; ii) barrier-free access;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         | (C) Work Education All -weather building consisting of - i) at least one class room for every teacher and an office-cum- store-cum-Head teacher's room; ii) barrier-free access; |

|    |                                                                           | v) vi) vii)                                                                                                            | a kitchen where mid-day meal is cooked in the school; playground, arrangements for securing the school building by boundary wall or fencing.                                                                                                                                                          |
|----|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  3 | Minimum number of working days / instructional hours in an academic year. | (i) (ii) (iii) (iv)                                                                                                    | Two hundred working days for first class to fifth class; Two hundred and twenty working days for sixth class to eighth class; Eight hundred instructional hours per academic year for first class to fifth class; One thousand instructional hours per academic year for sixth class to eighth class. |
|  4 | Minimum number of working hours per week for the teacher                  | forty-five teaching including preparation hours.                                                                       | forty-five teaching including preparation hours.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
|  5 | Teaching learning equipment                                               | Shall be provided to each class as required.                                                                           | Shall be provided to each class as required.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|  6 | Library                                                                   | There shall be library in each school providing newspaper, magazines and books on all subjects, including story-books. | There shall be library in each school providing newspaper, magazines and books on all subjects, including story-books.                                                                                                                                                                                |
|  7 | Play material, games and sports equipment.                                | Shall be provided to each class as required.                                                                           | Shall be provided to each class as required.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |