Kumar Bahukhandi
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai- File Photo
Raipur: To make the education system in Chhattisgarh strong and effective, recruitment will be done on vacant posts of teachers in a phased manner. 5,000 teachers will be recruited in the first phase. This decision will speed up the teaching-learning system in the educational institutions of the state and students will get quality education. Preparations have been started at the departmental level for recruitment on vacant posts of teachers.
Many important initiatives are being taken by the Chhattisgarh government with the aim of improving the education system in the state. These initiatives include rationalisation of schools and teachers. The process of rationalization has been started in the state. After its completion, the process of new recruitment will be started by assessing the vacant posts of teachers.
It is worth mentioning that as part of the initiative to improve the quality and access to education, the Chhattisgarh government is rationalizing schools and teachers in the state. Its purpose is that teachers should be available where needed and children can get good education, better educational environment and better facilities. Rationalization means improving the system of schools and teachers in such a way that the student-teacher ratio is balanced in all schools and no school remains without a teacher.
The state’s 30,700 primary schools have an average of 21.84 children per teacher and 13,149 pre-secondary schools have 26.2 children per teacher, which is much better than the national average. However, 212 primary schools are still teacherless and 6,872 primary schools have only one teacher working. At the pre-secondary level, 48 schools have no teachers and 255 schools have only one teacher. There are 362 schools where there are teachers but not a single student. Similarly, in urban areas, 527 schools have a student-teacher ratio of 10 or less. In 1,106 schools, this ratio is between 11 and 20. In 837 schools, this ratio is between 21 and 30. But in 245 schools, this ratio is 40 or more, that is, there are fewer teachers in proportion to the number of students enrolled.
Under rationalisation, teachers are being removed from schools where there are more teachers but no students and sent to schools where there are no teachers. This will solve the problem of teacherless and single teacher schools. The cost of running the school will also be reduced and resources can be used better. With more classes and facilities available in the same campus, children will not need to take admission again and again. That is, if primary, secondary, high school and higher secondary schools are run in the same campus, then after passing the primary classes, students will get rid of the process of getting admission in the higher classes. This will maintain continuity in studies for the children. The dropout rate of children will also decrease. It will be easy to provide facilities like good building, lab, library at one place.
According to the information received from the education department, under the rationalisation of schools, only 166 schools will be adjusted out of the total 10,463 schools in the state. Out of these 166 schools, 133 are such schools in rural areas, in which the number of students is less than 10 and another school is operating within one kilometer. Similarly, there are 33 schools in urban areas, in which the number of students is less than 30 and another school is operating within a radius of 500 meters. For this reason, 166 schools are being adjusted for the purpose of better education, this will not affect the education of children in any situation. The remaining 10,297 schools will remain fully operational.
In fact, the Chhattisgarh government is rationalising schools and teachers to improve the quality of education in urban and rural areas of the state. Its purpose is to ensure better use of resources and teachers where the need is greater. Those schools which are unable to provide proper education due to fewer students should be adjusted with nearby good schools, so that children can get better environment, resources and equal opportunity to study.
Rationalisation of schools and teachers will provide children more qualified and subject-specific expert teachers. Facilities like library, lab, computer etc. will be available in schools. Schools with shortage of teachers will now get adequate teachers. Schools which earlier had only a few students will now be able to get better education by going to nearby good schools. This change will improve the level of education in both rural and urban areas. The intention of the Chhattisgarh government is that every child should get good and quality education. This initiative will make the education system of the state more strong and balanced. Rationalisation will not only make proper use of teachers, but children will also be able to get better and quality education.
