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Over 8000 government schools in Jharkhand functioning with single teachers: Minister Ramdas Soren

The RTE activists under the banner of Gyan Vigyan Samiti had informed that out of the 6,904 single-teacher schools in Jharkhand, 93 per cent are primary schools.

Mukesh Ranjan

RANCHI: In a shocking revelation,Jharkhand Education Minister Ramdas Soren said as many as 7,930 government schools across the state are functioning with single teachers.

In a written response against a question raised by BJP MLA Raj Sinha on the crisis of teachers in government schools, Soren informed that 3.81 lakh students are enrolled in such single-teacher schools.

He further added that 103 schools have no students, and 17 teachers are posted in them.

However, he said that efforts are being made to bring back the dropouts to their respective schools.

“We have started a campaign called 'School Chalo Abhiyan', which is being run especially in areas where children are not coming to schools so that students can be brought back to their schools,” said Soren.

Recruitment of 26,000 assistant teachers is under process to deal with the crisis, he added.

Earlier in April 2023, the issue was flagged by Right to Education (RTE) activists that 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.

The RTE activists under the banner of Gyan Vigyan Samiti had informed that out of the 6,904 single-teacher schools in Jharkhand, 93 per cent are primary schools.

According to them, out of the total of 35438 schools in Jharkhand, 20 per cent of them are single-teacher schools.

The Gyan Vigyan Samiti had also revealed that 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.

According to the RTE activists, Jharkhand champions single-teacher schools in the country with the highest proportion -- 22 per cent -- of its school students enrolled in single-teacher schools.

As per the members of Gyan Vigyan Samiti working for the Right to Education (RTE), many of the schools in Jharkhand are single-teacher schools since the beginning, or was appointed with only one teacher.

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