Govt to recruit 12 lakh more primary teachers

Providing one teacher for every 30 students in schools is proving to be a major challenge with the Right to Education (RTE) Act in place.

Primary education in India, which was so long implemented through the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme, has undergone a major shift with the implementation of the RTE. Not only has the teacher pupil ratio changed from 1: 40 to 1: 30, more classrooms need to be built as per the new norms. Last week, the HRD ministry finalised the revised framework for SSA. “ The greatest challenge before us is definitely teacher recruitment,” says an HRD ministry official.

As per the present estimates, 12 lakh teachers need to be recruited by March 30, 2013, to provide for the new teacher pupil requirements. As it is at present, there are about five lakh teacher vacancies across states which are yet to be filled.

This major change in norms is not restricted to the increase in teachers alone. Schools will now need to construct more classrooms, a boundary wall, a playground, separate toilets for girls and boys and provide drinking water facilities.

Moreover, “ access” to schools has now taken on a new meaning altogether. Every habitation now needs to be served with one primary school. “ This will mean that one neighbourhood can have more than one school within a one km radius as per the new norms,” says the HRD official.

The revised SSA norms have, therefore, directed that residential schools or hostel facilities need to be provided for street children in urban areas. In remote and sparsely populated areas, states have to provide transport facilities to take these kids to the nearest available school.

The costs per child have incrementally gone up from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 6,000 for non- residential courses and from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000 for residential special training.

As an official intricately involved with the SSA revision process said, “ SSA was primarily geared at getting children to school, the RTE on the other hand is bringing about a sea change with its emphasis on quality and universalisation. We therefore had to align the SSA with RTE as it’s the primary vehicle for implementing the RTE.”