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Expert Comment

K-12 teacher shortage

myth

SANDIP DATTA GEETA KINGDON

NE OF THE ENDURING CURIOSITIES OF Indi- In 2019, the average number of pupils
an education is perpetual pressure for hiring more
teachers in public/government schools. The Na- in 500,000 government schools was
Otional Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends a mere 31, translating into a 13.3:1
filling 1 million teacher vacancies, which will cost a whop-
ping Rs.64,000 crore per annum at 2020 prices. But before pupils-teacher ratio. There is no teacher
state governments, blessed by the Union ministry of educa- shortage at all if students and teachers
tion, begin a hiring spree which could bust already fragile are properly deployed
state budgets, it is prudent to ask whether this shortage of
teachers has been correctly assessed. The Union education
ministry provides a figure of just over a million teacher va-
cancies, without explaining how it got that number. unviable schools that provide scant socialisation opportu-
According to the official District Information System of nity to children.
Education (DISE) 2019-20 data, the national pupil-teacher Our research shows that maintaining surplus pools of
ratio in government elementary schools was 25:1. Given teachers and a nationwide PTR (pupil-teacher ratio) of
that the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Educa- 25:1 rather than the prescribed maximum of 30, is already
tion (RTE) Act 2009, mandates a pupil-teacher ratio norm costing state governments Rs.29,000 crore per year by way
of 30:1, there is no teacher shortage in the sense that if of excess teacher salaries. If new teachers are recruited to
students and teachers are properly deployed, the mandated fill the claimed 1 million teacher vacancies as per the NEP
norm can be achieved without hiring any new teachers. 2020 recommendation, the national PTR would fall further
Applying RTE norms (e.g, at the primary level, two to 19.9:1, and would cost state governments an addition-
teachers for schools with “60 or fewer” pupils, and one ad- al Rs.64,000 crore every year (in 2020 prices) by way of
ditional teacher for every additional 30 students or a frac- teacher salaries for the next 30 years or more, since policy
tion thereof), some schools suffer teacher shortages, some in India does not permit teachers to be laid off once they are
have just the right number and some have surplus teachers. hired. Moreover, when you add the cost of currently sur-
If surplus teachers from the last category are relocated to plus teachers, the total expenditure adds up to a gargantuan
those suffering shortages, the net shortage is only a quar- Rs.93,000 crore (US$ 12.6 billion) per annum at 2019-20
ter million (2.5 lakh rather than 10 lakh). In other words, prices. Over 70 countries have lower GDP than this amount.
three-fourths of the shortage flagged by NEP 2020 is not n the circumstances there is urgent need to consolidate
a shortage at all! Itiny government schools. Due to the emptying out of gov-
Indeed, even the 2.5 lakh shortage estimate becomes ernment schools in 2019-20 there were 1.3 lakh ‘tiny’ public
an overstatement if there is correction in official data for schools with less than 20 pupils. These schools had — on
inflated student enrolment. Reports of the Comptroller average — merely 12.7 pupils per school, two teachers per
and Auditor General and the Mid-Day Meal Authority, say school, and a very low pupil-teacher ratio of 6.7:1. Teacher
that government schools seriously overstate enrolments for salary expense per pupil in these schools averages Rs.7,312
greater allotment of state benefits (sweaters, bags, grains per month or Rs.87,852 per year.
for mid-day-meals). Research by educationists using per This India-wide problem requires the intervention of
school data on students and teachers indicates that cor- the Central government, to incentivize the states to initi-
rection for such overstatement converts the net shortage ate school consolidation (merging neighbouring public
of 2.5 lakh teachers into a surplus of nearly 1 lakh teachers. schools). For instance, no Central resources should be pro-
Moreover during the past few years, a staggering number vided for hiring new teachers in at least the 13 major states
of parents have moved their children into affordable budget in which there is a net teacher surplus, till they consolidate
private schools (BPS). During the years 2010-19, 27 million tiny schools into larger schools and transfer surplus teach-
children exited public schools for BPS. Though during the ers to schools with a teacher deficit.
Covid pandemic this trend reversed to some extent, post- Instead of appointing yet more teachers in emptying
pandemic it has resumed. This mass migration has created minified schools, the solution is fewer higher-quality peda-
an extremely large number of ‘minified’ schools with very gogically and economically viable schools, with DBT (direct
low pupil-teacher ratios. In 2019, the average number of bank transfer) funding for transport to ensure that access
pupils in approx. 500,000 government schools was a mere is not jeopardised in the pursuit of quality.
31, translating into a 13.3:1 pupil-teacher ratio.
The RTE Act requires that even tiny schools with “20
or fewer” pupils employ two teachers. The Act doesn’t pre- (Sandip Datta is Assistant Professor, Delhi School of Economics & Geeta
scribe a minimum size for schools, thus maintaining tiny Gandhi Kingdon is Professor Emeritus of University College London)

26 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2024