Express News Service
RANCHI: In a shocking revelation by Right to Education (RTE) activists, as many as 22 per cent of the students enrolled in government schools in Jharkhand are studying in single-teacher schools which means every fifth child is devoid of proper education.
“As per Unified District Information System (UDIS) for Education, Jharkhand tops among 22 states in the country where nearly 22 per cent of the total students enrolled in government schools, have been studying in single-teacher schools,” said RTE activist Paran Amitava associated with development economist Jean
Dreze.
Single-teacher schools are spread all over the state but Ranchi, Dumka and West Singbhum have the highest number of single-teacher schools, she added.
“Furthermore, out of these 6904 (30 per cent) single-teacher schools in Jharkhand, 6388 are primary schools, which means 93 per cent of all single-teacher schools are primary schools,” said Paran.
The members of Gyan Vigyan Samiti working for the Right to Education claimed that many schools in Jharkhand are single-teacher schools since the beginning. Teachers are retiring every year but are not being hired by the government.
Earlier this month, on April 13, parents of students, educationists and social rights activists took out a rally in a block in Latehar district to protest against running government schools by a single teacher, which they termed as a “gross violation” of the Right to Education Act (RTE). Development economist Jean Dreze was also a part of the protest march.
Gram pradhans of various villages, school committee members and parents of children under the banner of Sanyukta Gram Sabha Manch Garu sent a letter to the Chief Minister Hemant Soren underlining the education scenario.
“We have urged CM Hemant Soren to hire teachers so that there are no more single-teacher schools in the state. We also urged him to look at the letter written by villagers from Garu who have come out of their homes for their child’s right to education,” said Vishwanath Singh of Gyan Vigyan Samiti. They are voicing the opinion of all parents across the state, he added.
The letter reads, “It is impossible to provide quality education in single-teacher schools. The children are left to themselves when the teacher is absent or busy with record-keeping. Even when the teacher is available, how is she supposed to teach children of five different grades on her own? In Garu, single-teacher schools have 48 pupils on average. One of them has 145 pupils!”
