We have the National Education Policy and a well structured, thought out plan for imparting education. However, it is not always possible to follow the guidelines accurately. The remote areas of our country are a victim of that, they have to manage their schools with the limited resources they have.
The Right to Education act 0f 2009 has specific Pupil Teacher Ratio, for both primary and upper primary schools. The ratio is 30:1 and 35 :1 respectively. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) stipulates the ratio of 30:1 for secondary level schooling.
Another parameter, the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) states these ratios as 24:1 and 27:1 for elementary and secondary level schools. The education Department website mentioned that there are many reasons for discrepancy in these numbers, some of the main factors in this regard are teachers deployment, service conditions and State Vs Central jurisdiction of the education sector.
Government’s flagship program Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA) provides assistance to the state governments to maintain proper Pupil Teacher ratio and helps in numerous ways to impart quality education.
In this video of UPS Manwan Awoora school, Kupwara, Kashmir, the community correspondent Pir Azhar shows us that there are nine classes for 250 students, and due to lack of space, the lower primary classes are held outside in the open. Also the school has only 7 teachers.
There is an absolute dearth of space and teachers in this school. According to the education policies of India, the classrooms should have a minimum of 500 Sq. Ft. area and the minimum floor space should be atleast 1 Sq. Mt. per student. And any school, be it primary or secondary, in rural or urban set up should have an overall area of 0.5 Acre (2000 Sq. Mt.).
Pir Azhar had raised this issue with the Education Department and Local Panchayat, we do believe that the situation will improve soon and students will have quality education.
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