SRINAGAR Bellying tall claims of the successive regimes to streamline the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in government schools, around 57 percent educational institutions continue to have disproportionate student teacher ratio.
A national survey has revealed that only 43.8 percent of government schools in J&K state comply with classroom teacher ratio (PTR). As per the set norms of the department the PTR at higher secondary school level should be 1:40 but the state has 1:32 while as the teacher student ratio at secondary level is 1:14 against 1:35 as recommended by the erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme.
The education department has Pupil-Teacher Ratio of 11:1 against recommended 30:1 at middle level in the government schools of J&K state. The government has time to time claimed that the government schools located in town, cities and on roadsides are overcrowded with teaching staff while as the student population in these schools is meagre.
As per the survey, the Srinagar district has the worst pupil teacher ratio of 1:5 depicting the failure of the government to streamline the pupil teacher ratio in government schools. The basic reason for disproportionate PTR in schools is due to the interference of bureaucracy in the posting of staff in schools. Everyone wants to be posted near his house or in an easily accessible school, an official said.
He said the student demand is never considered while posting of teachers, particularly in towns and city. We have maximum of schools in city where teachers outnumber the students while as in rural areas, the schools are teacher deficient, the official said. He said teachers appointed in rural areas on category certificates manage their postings in city areas on the pretext of security or health issues which disturbs the overall scenario in schools.
Besides the disproportionate ratio, the national survey has also depicted a grim picture of academic standards in the government schools, particularly at primary and middle level. The surprising part is that the schools in rural areas have good academic record despite having dearth of teachers while city schools hit the bottom in competition, despite having surplus staff, the official said.
Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) Muhammad Younis Malik said the department has started an exercise to rationalize the staff on need basis in schools wherein every school will be provided adequate teachings staff. We are at it and are expecting to overcome the problem, the official said. ( KNO)
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