Focus on faculty, infra as govt schools get more students

Chennai

There are about 45,800 government and aided schools in the State that have more than 66 lakh children studying from Classes 1 to 12. To teach them, these schools have 3.02 lakh teachers. This year, as the pandemic lockdown led to salary cut and even loss in jobs and business put considerable financial strain on parents, these schools have witnessed a rise in enrollment – a senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that the number of students is expected to increase to about 72 lakh this academic year. “With about six lakh new students expected to be enrolled this year, the number of teachers available at present will be not be adequate to take classes for the,” added the official. Thus, a minimum of about 20,000 teachers would have to be recruited before the schools reopened, the official said.

The new students admitted to the State-run schools would be given to the government, which would take decision on appointing new teachers accordingly, he added. “In addition, many schools would have to construct extra classroom to accommodate the new students,” he said, adding that the government would take a decision on this regard.

The admission process would continue till the end of September. After that, the school managements would be instructed to furnish the details about the number of sections that have to be increased. As per the education indicators, Tamil Nadu’s pupil-teacher ratio at government primary schools is 21.80 while it is 24.45 for the upper primary schools.

Commenting on this, Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Association president PK Ilamaran said while it was a very good sign that the admissions in government have increased, adequate teachers should be available at the schools to manage the rise.

The authorities could also consider transferring excess teachers from institutions that do not require them to those that have shortage, he opined.

“It will not be a big issue for the government to recruit teachers immediately, as more than 60,000 persons, who had completed TET, are on the waitlist,” he said. However, creating extra classrooms would take more time in comparison. Hence, Ilamaran added, efforts in this regard should be taken immediately so that new students would not face problems when the schools reopen.