The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : 1,680 schools have single teachers

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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

1,680 schools have single teachers

Special Correspondent

Panel to study their problems

There are 485 schools with less than five students
Government appoints 21,700 teachers

BANGALORE: As many as 1,680 government primary schools in the State continue to have single teachers and less than 10 students. There are 485 primary schools with less than five students, according to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri.

Speaking at a meeting of the Governing Council of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Samiti here on Friday, the Minister said that a committee would be constituted to look into the problems faced by such schools. Students of such schools would be given admission in nearby schools.

The Government was ready to bear the transportation cost of students. As many as 126 schools that had less than five students were in Tumkur district, he said.

The Centre’s guidelines stipulated that there should not be any school with only one teacher in the country. Of the 23,000 vacancies in schools, the Government had filled 21,700. The remaining vacancies would be filled soon, the Minister said.

Several government schools still had single classroom and it had been decided to build 6,000 classrooms in such schools in the next few years. The department had spent 65 per cent of the allocation earmarked in the budget for 2008-09, Mr. Kageri said.

Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who chaired the meeting, said Rs. 960 crore had been earmarked for SSA in the current fiscal. The Centre had contributed Rs. 624 crore and the State had released Rs. 336 crore. The Government had plans to extend the “Nali-Kali” programme up to third standard from 2009-10 in all government and aided schools, he said.

Stating that efforts should be made to improve the quality of teaching in government and aided-primary schools, the Chief Minister said the State ranked first in utilising the funds released under the SSA, but ranked third in the quality of education and learning by students. Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao and officials of SSA and the Education Department attended the meeting.

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