GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Ministry of Human Resource Development
DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY 

RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1308
ANSWERED ON AUGUST 19, 2013 

QUESTION
Low Teacher-Pupil Ratio
 

1308. SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR: 

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: 

(a)   Whether Government is aware that despite Implementation of Right to Education Act, the attainment of the all India teacher-pupil ratio continues to remain low; 

(b)   if so, the reasons therefor; and 

(c)    whether RTE does not have a solution to this critical problem and what steps Government proposes to take to encourage more people to enter the teaching occupation? 

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(DR. SHASHI THAROOR) 

(a) to (c) The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 became operative with effect from 1^st April, 2010, and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) norms have been revised to conform to the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) prescribed in the Schedule to the RTE Act. The revised norms are as under 

A. For classes I to V: 

(i)    Two teachers for up to sixty admitted children

(ii)   Three teachers for 61-90 children

(iii)   Four teachers for 91-120 children

(iv)   Five teachers for 121-200 children

(v)    One Head Teacher, other than the five teachers, if the number of admitted children exceeds 150; and the PTR (excluding Head Teacher) shall not exceed forty if the number of admitted children is above 200. 

B. For Classes VI to VIII:

(i)     At least one teacher per class so that there shall be at least one teacher each for (a) Science and Mathematics; (b) Social Studies; and (c) Languages

(ii)   At least one teacher for every 35 children,

(iii) Where admission of children is above 100, there shall be (a) a full time head-teacher and (b) part time instructors for Art Education, Health & Physical Education and Work Education.

 All per the District Information System for Education (DISE) 2011-12, the national average of PTR is 31:1 at primary level and 29:1 at upper primary level. 

The Pupil-Teacher Ratios vary across countries, depending upon local conditions, curriculum and pedagogical practices etc. Since the commencement of the RTE Act in 2010 over 7 lakh additional teacher posts have been sanctioned under the SSA programme, for elementary education. The States/ Union Territories (UTs) have been advised to rationalize the deployment of teachers to make all schools RTE compliant in terms of PTR. The nationwide shortage of teachers is a deep-rooted structural problem that cannot be resolved by the RTE Act in merely four years. The Act contains important provisions that aim to remove some or the bottlenecks that have created this shortage.