In a startling revelation, Jharkhand Education Minister Ramdas Soren has said that as many as 7,930 government schools across the state are operating with only one teacher.
Responding in writing to a query raised by BJP MLA Raj Sinha regarding the shortage of teachers in government schools, Soren stated that approximately 3.81 lakh students are enrolled in these single-teacher institutions.
Additionally, he mentioned that 103 schools have no students at all, yet 17 teachers are still assigned to them. Despite the situation, Soren assured that efforts are being made to re-enroll dropouts in their respective schools.
“We have launched a campaign called 'School Chalo Abhiyan,' specifically targeting areas where students are not attending school, to encourage them to return,” he stated.
To address the crisis, the government is in the process of recruiting 26,000 assistant teachers, he added.
The issue was previously highlighted in April 2023 by Right to Education (RTE) activists, who pointed out that nearly 22 per cent of students in government schools in Jharkhand are studying under a single teacher, meaning one out of every five students lacks access to proper education.
Their findings also indicate that out of the total 35,438 schools in the state, 20 per cent are run by a single teacher.
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Furthermore, data from the Unified District Information System (UDIS) for Education revealed that Jharkhand ranks highest among 22 states in India in terms of single-teacher schools, with nearly 22 per cent of government school students studying under such conditions.
The RTE activists emphasized that Jharkhand leads the nation in the proportion of students attending single-teacher schools, making it the state with the highest dependency on this system.
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