Lok Sabha Question No. 1375 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-28
Subject: Improvement in Teacher-Student Ratio
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Dr. Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Shri Ravindra Dattaram Waikar, Smt. Shambhavi, Shri Naresh Ganpat Mhaske

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO:- 1375

ANSWERED ON-28/07/2025

## Improvement in Teacher-Student Ratio

## 1375. DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

SHRI NARESH GANPAT MHASKE:

SMT. SHAMBHAVI:

SHRI RAVINDRA DATTARAM WAIKAR:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has conducted any study to assess improvements in the teacher-student ratio in different States/UTs and education levels during the last year, and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  whether targeted  recruitment  drives  have  been  conducted  during  the  last  year  to  improve  the teacher-student ratio, particularly in rural and underserved areas, and if so, the details thereof;
- (c)  the  measures  implemented  to  ensure  equitable  distribution  of  teachers  in  schools  to  address shortage of teachers of specific subjects or in regions in the last year;
- (d) the details of the integration of digital and blended learning helped mitigate challenges related to teacher shortages while maintaining quality education; and
- (e) the steps taken by the Government to address the concerns regarding teacher workload and multigrade teaching in schools with high student populations?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDARY)

(a): In order to collect real-time data from schools, the Department of School Education and Literacy, Government  of  India  has  developed  the  Unified  District  Information  System  for  Education  Plus (UDISE+) from the year 2018-19. The details regarding the improvement in the Pupil-Teacher Ratio of Government schools across the country in the previous years, as per the UDISE+ 2022-23 and 2023-24 reports, are as under: -

| 2022-23   | 2022-23       | 2022-23   | 2022-23          | 2023-24   | 2023-24       | 2023-24   | 2023-24          |
|-----------|---------------|-----------|------------------|-----------|---------------|-----------|------------------|
| Primary   | Upper Primary | Secondary | Higher Secondary | Primary   | Upper Primary | Secondary | Higher Secondary |
| 25        | 23            | 18        | 26               | 22        | 21            | 15        | 22               |

(b) & (c): Education being a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, an overwhelming majority of the schools in the country comes under the administrative control of States/UTs. The recruitment  and  rational  deployment  of  teachers  come  under  the  purview  of  the  respective  State Governments/UT Administrations.  The  Government  through  the  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  of Samagra Shiksha, provides financial assistance to the States and UTs to maintain appropriate PupilTeacher Ratio (PTR) for various levels of schooling, as per norms prescribed in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, as amended from time to time.

Samagra Shiksha norms provide for States/UTs to undertake a deployment of teachers through a transparent online platform to ensure that the RTE stipulations are adhered to and school teachers spend adequate time serving in rural and underserved areas. The progress regarding filling up of teacher vacancies through a competitive selection examination conducted by States/UTs on a mission mode, with due care for consistency and sanctity and after a technology based comprehensive teacher requirement planning and forecasting exercise, is periodically reviewed  through regular meetings with States/UTs as well as through advisories.

(d): In order to ensure integration of digital and blended learning to help mitigate challenges related to teacher shortages while maintaining quality education, a comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya has been initiated which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The key initiatives under PM e-Vidya are: -

-  DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) portal and DIKSHA mobile app - a store house of large number of eBooks and e-Contents;
-  SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-learning for Young Aspiring Minds) portal for self-paced life-long learning;
-  200 PM e-Vidya DTH channels to enable all States/UTs to provide supplementary education in Indian languages for Classes I to XII;
-  Extensive use of Radio, Community Radio and CBSE Podcast - Shiksha Vani;
-  Special e-content for Children with Special Needs (CwSN) developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in Indian Sign Language (ISL);
-  Digital content broadcast by NCERT on DTH and YouTube channels;

Further, financial support for setting up ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms in schools under the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha is provided to State/UTs as per scheme norms.

(e): In order to provide continuous professional development opportunities to the teachers, NISHTHA (National  Initiative  for  School  Heads'  and  Teachers'  Holistic  Advancement)  program  has  been introduced by the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT). It aligns with the NEP 2020's focus on enhancing teacher competency, fostering innovative pedagogical practices, and integrating  technology  into  education.  The  NISHTHA  training  programme  is  available  on  the DIKSHA portal. The pedagogical perspective being transacted in these training programmes enables teachers to handle multi-grade teaching scenario also. Further, in line with the recommendations of National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, these efforts are  complemented by the rationalization of teachers to ensure their optimal deployment and effective utilization across schools.

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