- Even after 14 years of implementation of the Right to education, the proportion of single-teacher schools in India is still a high 14.7%.
- The Right to Education Act states that every school must have at least two teachers.
- The Act also requires presence of a primary school within one kilometer of every habitation.
- In some states, the single-teacher schools are likely to have something to do with low population density, scattered settlement patterns and low fertility rates.
- In Kerala, single-teacher schools seem to be a second-best arrangement for tiny habitations. The proportion of single-teacher schools in Kerala was also low (4%)
- However, in many states there are plenty of single-teacher schools with a large number of children.
- Only nine in India’s 21 major states had an average pubic-teacher ratio below 30 in single-teacher schools.
SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB