Despite government reserves for the same, Gujarat state-run primary schools are faced with an acute shortage of teachers. Of the 33,000 government schools in the state, nearly 700 primary schools have just one teacher for all subjects.
During question hour in the Assembly on Monday, the government, in reply to Congress MLAs queries, acceded that most of these schools impart education from class 1 to class 8. However, in most, there is only one teacher for all subjects. The situation is particularly singed in Kutch, where more than 100 schools have reported a teacher each for all subjects in each grade.
Likewise, in state capital Gandhinagar, nearly nine schools have been allotted a teacher for each grade to handle all the subjects. “That is why the quality of education is suffering. A teacher trained to teach the arts cannot impart learning in maths and science and vice-versa,” stated the Congress MLAs, pointing at the dismal results years after year of children passing out from the state-run institutions.
In defence, the government pointed out that Kheda and Bhavnagar districts fare better with subject-specific teachers.
