The state government has failed to rationalise teachers in proportion to the number of students in its schools as specified in the Right to Education Act. As a result the release of funds from the Centre to the state is being delayed.
The Centre had recently expressed its willingness to release its share of `400 crore to the state to implement the RTE. But the teacher-student ratio in many schools is skewed. While some schools have more teachers and few students, it is the other way round in other schools.
Despite the Union minister of HRD repeatedly asking the state government to expedite the rationalisation process of teachers for the last six months, nothing much has happened. The differences between the department of school education and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan over the data on existing teachers in the state is said to be the reason for the delay in rationalisation.
While SSA said that the state had 25,000 excess teachers in elementary schools, the department of school education pointed out that there was no “scientific basis” for the data prepared by the SSA. SSA even gave a presentation to the HRD ministry on the “excess teachers” and pointed out that it could meet the “student-teacher” ratio as prescribed in the RTE Act if the department of school education rationalised the teachers accordingly.