NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday said that the number of schools and teachers declined due to the rationalisation by state governments and closures during Covid-19 pandemic. While in 2020-21, as many as 15 lakh schools were functioning, in 2021-22, it came down to 14 lakh. In 2020-21, there were 96 lakh teachers, which dipped to 95 lakh in 2021-22, the Union Education Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
The decline in schools in 2021-22 is mainly due to the rationalisation of schools by various state governments and the closure of private and other schools during the pandemic, Annapurna Devi, Minister of State for Education, said.
Similarly, the main reason for decline in teachers is due to the deployment of fewer teachers in private schools during the pandemic period when schools were operating through online mode, she said.
She said to improve the quality of education in the country, the Department of School Education and Literacy has taken various steps, including a national initiative for proficiency in reading with understanding and numeracy, the integrated training programme of teachers and structured assessment for analysing learning level, competency-based assessment in CBSE schools for grades 3, 5 and 8.
Many schools in India were closed as part of the national policy of rationalisation that was implemented. Under that, those schools were targeted with low enrolment rates or were run by single teachers.
The policy’s main aims included ensuring that resources were used more effectively. According to the government, majority of the schools are under the domain of respective state and UT governments.