Srinagar, Sep 27: In Jammu and Kashmir, over 32,000 school students are being taught by single teachers in 1371 educational institutes—thus raising a question on quality of education and availability of staff.
According to the official figures available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Jammu and Kashmir has at least 1371 schools wherein single teachers have been posted or deployed.
On the contrary, the government as well as the management of private schools claim that they have a sufficient availability of human resources and infrastructure but the official figures reveal a different story.
The figures reveal that there is an enrolment of 32,303 students enrolled in those schools where only single teachers are posted or deployed.
Pertinently, in previous report, the official figures have revealed that in Jammu and Kashmir more than 31,054 students were enrolled in those schools that were functioning with a single teacher.
In the previous report, there were only 1330 schools that were functioning with only a single teacher. However, the recent report suggests that the numbers have increased by at least 41 schools.
In 2024, KNO first broke the news of closure of over 4400 government run schools owing to ‘zero or extremely low’ enrolment of students.
In July-2024, the news agency reported that there were a total of 23,117 government run schools in Jammu and Kashmir out of which 4394 have been deleted from the UDISE data.
Principal Secretary, School Education Department and Project Director of Jammu and Kashmir Samagra Shiksha were not available to comment on the issue—(KNO)