Quality teachers a major concern: Sibal

Updated on: Friday, September 11, 2009

New Delhi: The govt flagship programme SSA, has helped in expansion of education with nearly 99 % of habitations getting a primary school even as quality of teachers remains a major concern.

'Quality teachers is a major challenge before the country. Teachers lacking qualification will get the training in the next three years as per the Right To Education Act,' HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters today.

Under (Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan) SSA, 3.04 lakh new primary schools have been sanctioned while 2.70 lakh have already been operationalised. Similarly, against sanctioned recruitment of 12.27 lakh teachers at primary and upper primary levels, about 9.86 lakh have been recruited by March this year, Sibal said.

However, with regard to appointment of teachers, certain states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are lagging behind, he said.

SSA, which aims at universalisation of elementary education, reaches to over 19 crore children in 12 lakh schools in the country.

A budget allocation of Rs 13,100 crore has been made for 2009-10, against which an amount of Rs 4,919 crore has been released to states and Union Territories by August this year.

For 2009-10, as many as 21,419 new schools will be opened in unserved habitations. The SSA will undertake construction of 14,579 new school buildings and 1.26 lakh additional
classrooms.

There is a target to recruit 52,239 teachers this year also. Besides, textbooks will be provided to 9.79 crore children, while in-service training will be made available to
40 lakh teachers.

Dropout rate at primary level has decreased from 39 per cent in 2001-02 to 25.43 per cent in 2006-07 while at elementary level it has decreased from 54.60 per cent to 46 per cent in this period.
The government would introduce reforms in recruitment system to appoint trained teachers. It will rationalize deployment of teachers so that all schools have two teachers at primary and one teacher for each class at upper primary level.

Quality teachers a major concern: Sibal

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