Odisha Needs 2 Lakh Teachers To Meet Student-Teacher Ratio: UNESCO

Bhubaneswar: With 3,197 schools, both government and private, in Odisha having one teacher each, the state needs more than two lakh teachers to meet student-teacher ratio as per Right to Education norms, according to UNESCO.

Stating this in its ‘No Teacher, No Class: State of Education Report for India-2021’ released on Monday, the education arm of the UN said 88% of these schools are located in rural areas of the state.

Pointing out that it is a gross violation of the Right to education, the report said the state has 3,40,477 teachers in its total 68,717 schools. Around 11% of these schools require 28,816 teachers at present.

According to the Right to Education (RTE) norms, student-teacher ratio should be 30:1 at primary level of classes I to V and 35:1 for upper primary level of VI  to VIII schools.

The report further said 2.86% of the teachers at pre-primary level and 3.46% at primary level are under-qualified . In the upper primary, secondary and higher secondary levels, the percentage of such teachers is 1.61%, 0.45% and 0.34%, according to a TNIE report.

Similarly, Odisha is among nine states that have very low access to computers and internet. A meagre six pc of the total schools have internet facilities and ICT labs.

Though Odisha fares better than other parts of the country in having basic infrastructure like roads to schools and washrooms, drinking water and classrooms in schools, only 38% of its schools have electricity supply.

The UNESCO has correlated its statistics with recent reports of the Unified District Information System for Education, Central Teacher Eligibility Test and Periodic Labour Force Survey to prepare its report.