Teacher-Student Ratio: A Crucial Element in the Merger of Government Schools in West Bengal
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Kolkata, Jan 13 (NationPress) Following the recent indication from West Bengal's education minister Bratya Basu about the potential merger of government-run schools, department officials have begun devising a plan to facilitate this unification while ensuring a fair teacher to student ratio in each newly formed school.
Sources within the state education department revealed that they have pinpointed a number of schools in West Bengal that currently have no students enrolled.
At present, there are 3,254 such schools across the state. Interestingly, it has been noted that 14,627 teachers are officially employed at these institutions.
Conversely, insiders from the department stated that there are 6,366 schools in West Bengal that have 100 or more students but only one teacher assigned to each.
“The current plan is to merge two or more schools from both categories based on their proximity to one another, with the goal of achieving a balanced teacher to student ratio in the merged schools,” mentioned a senior official from the state school education department, who preferred to remain anonymous.
The average number of students per school in West Bengal is currently 192, while the average number of teachers per school is 6, resulting in an average teacher to student ratio of 1:32.
The school education department is optimistic that merging various schools will assist the state government in obtaining a more equitable teacher-student ratio.
On the other hand, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), affiliated with CPI(M), argues that by choosing to merge schools, the state government is taking a shortcut and failing to tackle the long-standing issue of inadequate academic infrastructure in government schools.
SFI leaders contend that this merger strategy allows the state government to sidestep the critical need for increased teacher employment within government schools, a sector already plagued by corruption.
