30% Haryana's primary schools sans single teacher per class

GURGAON: Thirty per cent of the government primary schools in Haryana have only a single teacher per class who teaches all the subjects to the students and also ensures the administrative work along with the skill development for these students.
Furthermore, the state also has a good number of schools which do not even have a single teacher per class.“As per the RTE norms, there must be one teacher per every 40 students and we are meeting that criterion in all the schools.
However, unlike in an ideal situation, in some schools, we do not have a teacher per class,” said PK Das, additional chief secretary, education.
Though the officials could not provide a definite number of such schools, yet the sources informed that the number is substantial enough to be a concern.
Das added that in primary schools where there are not enough teachers the education department is trying to train the teachers on multi- grade teaching techniques.
“We are trying to guide the teachers with regards to multi-grade teaching so that they are motivated and able to understand the difference in the learning capabilities of different pupils in the class and facilitate learning at the individual and the group level,” said Das.
However, the claims of the state government seem a bit far-fetched as the situation is much worse on the ground specially post the online JBT transfers which were concluded in September this year.
The transfers had disturbed the ratio of teachers in many schools in Gurgaon itself. And many schools went without single teachers for almost over a month. The district level education officials made arrangements at the local level after the issue was raised by the association and the media.
“There are no schools without any teachers in Gurgaon district as we have made arrangements and sent extra teachers from one school to another with paucity of staff,” Ram Kumar Phalaswal had told TOI. He said the permanent appointments have to done at the directorate level.
The appointment of new teachers in the state has been on hold since 2013 when the then CM Chautala led JBT scam was unveiled.