According to data from the department, the state has 37,387 government schools. Of them, 11,265 have fewer than 30 students, while 13,594 have a strength of 31 to 100.
Published: 18th September 2023 07:31 AM | Last Updated: 18th September 2023 07:31 AM | A+A A-
Image used for representational purpose only. (Express IIlustration)
COIMBATORE: A teacher’s work is never done. Ask primary school teacher C Ramamoorthy from Coimbatore. His work begins with preparing lesson plans over the weekend. By 9 am, he must check the official WhatsApp group for directions from the school education department. At school, he and other teachers spend at least 20 minutes taking attendance and battling dodgy Internet connections to upload it online. Aside from this, he must complete the several administrative tasks thrust upon teachers by the department before getting home and vetting students’ workbooks.
In the last month alone, the teachers in Tamil Nadu government schools conducted a battery of tests for students, health surveys, data entry for government schemes, alumni registration, and more. “We end up completing the lessons quickly without assessing if the children have understood them or not,” he said.
C Amuthavani, a secondary grade teacher at Erode, said the administrative tasks encroach into the time she spends with students. “All students don’t learn the same way and we have to adapt our methods accordingly. But with all the work, I am unable to use remedial teaching methods for slow learners,” she rued.
Her school is also understaffed. With 70 students from classes 1 to 5, it should ideally have three teachers, but it has only her and the headmaster. Aside from the 13,000-odd vacancies at the schools, educationists said underpopulated schools further stretch the department’s resources. According to data from the department, the state has 37,387 government schools. Of them, 11,265 have fewer than 30 students, while 13,594 have a strength of 31 to 100. Only 390 schools have more than 1,000 students.
Officials cite a lack of teachers, poor infrastructure, and proximity of private schools as the major reasons for 67% of government schools having less than 100 students. The department’s adherence to the teacher: student ratios as per the Right to Education Act, results in these schools not having a teacher for every class. Educationists believe it is time for the department to adopt a 1:25 teacher: student ratio.
Su Moorthy, TN coordinator of the Federation for Education Development, said parents believe that the quality of education would be poor if the school doesn’t have a teacher for every class. So, they enroll their wards in private schools. “Till 1997, the teacher: student ratio in TN was 1:20. Now, in primary classes it is 1:30. So, if there are 60 children in classes 1 to 5 at a school, only two teachers (one headmaster and a teacher) will be recruited,” he said. In such an arrangement, the HM manages all the administration work while the teacher handles all the lessons, he explained.
R Selvamani from Kinathukadavu in Coimbatore said, “The school near my home has only one teacher for all five classes, so, I admitted my son to a faraway panchayat union primary school at Kinathukadavu Main. That school has a teacher exclusively for each class.”
O
P
E
N
Comments
Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views! But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. All the comments will be moderated by the newindianexpress.com editorial. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks. Try to avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines.
The views expressed in comments published on newindianexpress.com are those of the comment writers alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of newindianexpress.com or its staff, nor do they represent the views or opinions of The New Indian Express Group, or any entity of, or affiliated with, The New Indian Express Group. newindianexpress.com reserves the right to take any or all comments down at any time.
The Morning Standard | Dinamani | Kannada Prabha | Samakalika Malayalam | Cinema Express | Indulgexpress | Edex Live | Events Xpress
Contact Us | About Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use |
Home | Nation | World | Cities | Business | Columns | Entertainment | Sport | Magazine | The Sunday Standard
Copyright – newindianexpress.com 2023. All rights reserved. Website Designed, Developed & Maintained by Express Network Private Ltd.