Despite 3,214 primary and 101 middle schools being run by single teachers, Himachal Pradesh has the best pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in the country, Education Minister Rohit Thakur informed the Vidhan Sabha today.
Replying to a written query jointly raised by BJP legislators Pawan Kajal, Hans Raj, JR Katwal and Daleep Thakur during Question Hour, Thakur said 393 primary and three middle schools were also being run by teachers on deputation.
He said the PTR in the state was 12 at the primary level, 11 at the middle-school level and 10 at the high and senior secondary levels, despite vacancies in teaching posts.
According to the minister, 5,209 posts of Trained Graduate Teachers (TGTs) and Junior Basic Teachers (JBTs) were vacant in government schools. Against 36,835 sanctioned posts, 29,155 were filled.
Recruitment of 764 TGTs against 1,190 vacancies was underway through the batch-wise process, he said.
Thakur attributed the shortage of teachers to the large number of government schools with very low enrolment, saying this was hampering the optimum utilisation of available resources.
“Rationalisation and proper utilisation of resources” was the only way to ensure quality education in government schools, he said.
The minister also informed the House that the state government had decided to recruit 6,297 nursery teacher trainees (NTTs) for pre-primary classes through 14 agencies engaged by the HP State Electronics Development Corporation.
He said 1,526 low-enrolment schools, catering to just 1,796 students, had been denotified by the state government. These included 734 zero-enrolment schools.
The merger of these schools resulted in 2,170 teachers being posted to other schools with higher enrolment, Thakur said, adding that the merger and rationalisation exercise had been carried out as per norms.
