‘State plans school mergers based on pupil-teacher ratio report’

Kolkata: The state School Education department has instructed schools across the state to submit detailed information on their pupil-teacher ratios (PTR). In a statement on Monday, state Education minister Bratya Basu clarified that actions, including the merging of schools, will be taken based on the PTR report.

The latest Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report for the 2023-2024 academic year revealed that 3,254 schools out of 93,945 have zero enrolments, employing a combined total of 14,627 teachers. Additionally, 6,366 schools operate with only a single teacher. Basu acknowledged the challenges and outlined plans to address them.

Speaking at the sidelines of a programme at Chetla Boys High School, Basu said: “Many schools do not have students. We are preparing a PTR and will merge schools based on its findings.”

He also revealed ongoing plans to merge two schools with Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) schools and confirmed that similar mergers between schools would take place across the state once the report is finalised. “The report is nearly complete,” he added.

There is an imbalance in PTR across many schools, with some having more teachers than students, while others struggle with too few teachers for large numbers of pupils.

To tackle this, the Education department has already begun a teacher rationalisation process, which includes transferring teachers from schools where their numbers are surplus.

The UDISE+ report also highlighted a notable increase in the dropout rate at the secondary level. While the dropout rate at the primary and upper primary levels has fallen to zero, the rate at the secondary level has increased from 8.5 per cent in 2022-2023 to 17.8 per cent in 2023-2024, marking a 9.3 per cent rise.

“I need to study the report. We will look into the dropout rate. However, we have long demanded that the Central government extend mid-day meals until class X. Currently, it is provided only until class VIII, and this can become a problem for families from underprivileged backgrounds,” said minister Basu.