Guwahati: Nearly 8,000 govt schools in Assam do not meet the 30:1 pupil-teacher ratio, state education minister Ranoj Pegu told the assembly on Thursday.Pegu said 7,948 of Assam’s 44,103 state-run schools, from lower primary to higher secondary levels, do not meet the prescribed pupil-teacher ratio.Replying to Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Nazar, Pegu said the norm was not being met in 5,303 lower primary schools, 1,253 upper primary schools, 821 secondary schools and 571 higher secondary schools.In response to a separate question from Congress MLA Wazed Ali Choudhury, Pegu said Assam has 1,54,078 sanctioned regular teacher posts in govt schools, of which 30,032 are vacant. Lower primary schools account for the highest vacancies at 11,662, while secondary and higher secondary schools together have 11,231 vacant posts.Pegu said the govt has adopted a three-pronged strategy — regular recruitment, intra-district rationalisation and merger or amalgamation of schools — to improve teacher deployment.Replying to AIUDF MLA Badruddin Ajmal, Pegu said schools are often recorded as single-teacher institutions when one of two sanctioned lower primary posts remains vacant.“In schools with Classes VI to XII, each teacher normally handles four to five classes daily. At the LP level, teachers undertake multigrade teaching from Classes I to V,” Pegu said.
