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Teacher-student ration at civic schools in line with RTE rules, say MCDs
New Delhi: A day after Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia, citing a union ministry report, said that municipal schools under the BJP-ruled civic bodies have a poor pupil-teacher ratio (PTR), the three corporations -- north, south and east -- shared data on the number of students enrolled in their schools and the teachers engaged to state that their PTR is in accordance with the Right to Education (RTE) Act
New Delhi: A day after Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia, citing a union ministry report, said that municipal schools under the BJP-ruled civic bodies have a poor pupil-teacher ratio (PTR), the three corporations -- north, south and east -- shared data on the number of students enrolled in their schools and the teachers engaged to state that their PTR is in accordance with the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
Implying that the discrepancy in numbers is the result of leaving out contractual teachers in the data, they said that all civic bodies have such teachers and that recruitment process for hiring more regular teachers is underway.
On Sunday, Sisodia, citing the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report for 2019-20, said that only 50% municipal schools operated within the RTE mandated PTR of 30:1 and 35:1 in primary and upper primary levels, respectively. The minister further said that while 98% of the Delhi government schools have maintained the RTE mandated PTR, 58% of East MCD schools, 46% of North MCD schools and 39% of South MCD schools are not following it.
However, the data shared by the civic bodies showed that their PTR is more or less in accordance with the RTE Act.
As per data shared by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), schools under it have a total of 4,764 teachers for 159,550 students enrolled across its 357 schools. “The overall student-teacher ratio at present is 34:1, which is fine and very close to the RTE mandated PTR. Of the total number of teachers, 868 are those engaged on a contractual basis. We have already renewed the contracts of these teachers for this year,” said a senior EDMC official, who did not wish to be named.
EDMC mayor Shyam Sundar Agrawal said that municipal schools have a good PTR even with the financial constraints being faced across the three corporations. “I am yet to see the report in detail. I don’t know what the Delhi education minister has seen... The ground reality is that at present we have an adequate student teacher ratio. Also, the number of students enrolled in our schools has been on the rise over the past two years,” said Agrawal.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which shared data till November 2020, said that its PTR is 42:1, “only slightly behind the RTE mandate”. The South civic body has 6,044 teachers for 254,303 students enrolled across its 581 schools. Of the teachers engaged, 414 are contractual while 108 have been hired under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
“The contractual teachers will be renewed once schools reopen. At present, classes are going on in the online mode. Also, the process of recruitment of regular teachers is underway,” said a senior South corporation official.
SDMC mayor Mukesh Suryan said that at present around 75%- 80% of the enrolled students are taking classes under the online system while some have left the city to go back to their home states because of the pandemic. “The PTR of our schools is good enough given the limited resources, and will be improved even further. Besides, the recruitment process of over 750 regular teachers is in process. Their documents are being verified for due appointment,” said Suryan.
The North corporation has 7,700 teachers for around 240,000 students enrolled across its 780 schools. “Our student teacher ratio at present is 31:1. The schools have a capacity to enrol around three lakh students and the civic body is in the process of hiring around 350 regular teachers this year,” said a North corporation official, who did not wish to be named.
A Delhi government spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
