The quality of education in government schools especially of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is already in shambles and it is further deteriorating as the no. of government teachers required in these schools are too less than the prescribed. According to a study that includes six states, there is a shortage of more than five lakh teachers in elementary schools. The study further states that 14 percent of government secondary schools do not even have six teachers, which is minimum no. of teachers required in the government schools.

As per a study conducted by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), and Child Rights and You (CRY) in six states- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal- there is a dearth of teachers in public schools, reports The Indian Express.

It reveals that Bihar and Uttar Pradesh ranks on top for having the most number of vacant teacher posts in the state. Of the six states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh together have almost 4.2 lakhs of vacant posts. The study further says that Bihar has the highest number of untrained teachers both at the elementary and secondary level, followed by West Bengal that has the second highest number of untrained teachers.

Bihar has 38.7 per cent professionally unqualified teachers at the elementary and at the secondary level, it has 35.1 per cent of untrained teachers. Second on the list is West Bengal which accounts for 31.4 per cent of shortage at the elementary level and 23.9 per cent at secondary levels, respectively.

On the other hand, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are fairly doing better in the criteria, as both the state have done recruitments in almost 95 per cent of the elementary level posts.

The increase of Budget doesn’t reflect on the schools’ condition

The report also mentions that even after an increase in funding for school education for the states under the 14th Finance Commission period, there has been no visible change in the school’s conditions. It points out that the budget has not been fully utilised to change the composition of their school education spending.

It also says that due to improper use of budget for the education sectors in these states, there is a crunch in the allocation of resources.