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Study reveals that a mere 5.3% schools have core teachers dedicated for all subjects.
A recent research conducted by the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) revealed that out of the 15,141 high schools in Karnataka, putting together both private and government-run institutions, only 5.3% have teachers for all core subjects. The same figure for MP stood at a mere 2%.
It is often lamented that teacher efficiency is very low in our education system besides the frequent complaint about the low learning out comes. A recent research conducted by the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) may carry the reason for the two. The survey revealed that out of the 15,141 high schools in Karnataka, putting together both private and government-run institutions, only 5.3% have teachers for all core subjects. More than 70% of these schools have just 2 language teachers, and 1 each for mathematics and science. Less than 50% of the schools can boast of having at least one social studies teacher.
When there are lesser teachers than needed in the school, needless to say teachers share teaching and administrative responsibilities. This hampers their efficiency and ultimately the learning outcomes. The survey, ‘Teacher Demand and Supply in Secondary Schools’, also delved into the reasons for the extremely low number of teachers revealing non-sanctioning of posts, lack of effective teacher deployment and small school size as main reasons for the shortage.
"We don't know the basis of the RMSA study. We have a good number of core subject teachers. In keeping with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) norms, we are planning to recruit more teachers to fill vacancies in secondary schools," said a senior official from the primary and secondary education department.
The RMSA survey also covered the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP). MP has an even serious shortage of teachers with less than 2% of the schools having one teacher each for social studies, science and mathematics. Only 43% of the schools had 2 language teachers while 23% had 3 language teachers.
A source in the education department said that there were 44,630 sanctioned posts for teachers in the state-board secondary schools. However, of these 5,707 posts remain unfilled leading to a shortage of core subject teachers.
After studying the main causes of shortage, the study went on to suggest measures for improving the situation. Key among them were efficient deployment policy, efficient planning, demand supply synchronization, clustering of small schools, strategic planning to meet the demand of teachers in tribal areas and maintaining an updated teacher database.
Niranjanaradhya VP, fellow at the centre for child and the law, NLSIU pointed out that secondary schools were facing a severe shortage of Hindi teachers. Recently, the government upgraded some higher primary schools (till class7) to class 8; even they lack subject teachers for class 8.
* Read the original story by M.V. Pavan on www.timesofindia.indatimes.com
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