Maharashtra has 15,000 surplus teachers, says survey

The recently completed teacher/student ratio survey or Sanch Manyata conducted by the education department shows that the state has nearly 15,000 surplus teachers who need to be transferred to schools where there are less or no approved and qualified teachers. However, education minister Vinod Tawde, while informing the House about the surplus teachers, said there were more than 10,000 surplus teachers.

In 2015, the BJP government in the state introduced the new student/teacher ratio based on divisions as per the Right to Education Act and as a result of which a fresh survey had to be conducted. As per the new ratio schools for class 9 and 10that have student strength of 90 or more can have a headmaster post but if the school is for class 6 to 10 the student strength has to be 100 or more to merit a headmasters post. The rule further stipulated that teacher approvals would be based on number of divisions hence in the event of ten divisions only ten teachers would be approved.

In the case of schools offering class 5 the teacher ratio would be one teacher instructing every 30 students while schools offering class 6 to 8 the ratio is two teachers for 35 students.

In the case of class 9 and 10 the ratio is three teachers for 60 students. Schools from class 1 to 12 can have one headmaster, a deputy headmaster and a supervisor and there is no need for separate headmasters for primary and secondary classes.

“If we go by the new ratio many posts of deputy headmaster and librarian will remain vacant and need to be filled up,” said Uday Nare, a member of Shikshak Bharati.

He also said that the government needs to look into the reason for the availability of such a high number of surplus teachers.