Pune second in Maharashtra in one-teacher schools

PUNE: Popular as a hub of education in India, Pune has the maximum number of schools functioning with just a teacher in the state after Raigad.

In 265 schools in Pune, one teacher imparts education in all classes. The Raigad district has 372 such schools. Over 3,700 schools in the state are dependent on a teacher. A report of the Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad (MPSP) revealed this, triggering posers on the system of allocation of teachers to schools.

Ratnagiri stood third in the state with 257 schools having a single teacher. According to the of the MPSP, Mumbai and Mumbai suburbs put together have just 72 schools with single teacher.

According to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, there should be two teachers for every 60 students. The act was implemented in the state in 2010. Many of its provisions were yet to be followed, educationist Shriram Apte told TOI.

Apte said, “These teachers (taking care of all the classes in a school) are facing extreme difficulty in handling four and more classes in a school. As a result, the education environment in schools is getting disturbed.”

A teacher at a zilla parishad school, Santosh Musale said, “I know a few schools having less than 30 students. Sometimes, only about 20 of them turn up. Yet, they have two teachers. There is an extreme disparity in allocation of teachers to schools in rural areas of the state and I feel that steps need to be taken to address the teacher allocation issue on immediate basis.”

Earlier this year, the state government undertook the teacher allocation work. A specialized portal — Pavitra — was launched. Schools were asked to feed the details in the portal’s database about the number of vacancies, existing employees and ratio to students.

Senior officials in the state primary education department claimed that the teacher allocation work was under way. Teachers from the schools having excess teaching staff would be reallocated to the nearest possible schools having vacancies.