8,207 state-run schools in Bengal have student strength below 30

Kolkata, March 4 (IANS) As many as 8,207 state-run schools in West Bengal are currently having a total student strength of 30 or less, as per statistics of the state Education Department.

Out of the 8,207 state-run schools, as many as 1,362 are higher secondary schools.

The fact has been revealed following initial findings of a survey conducted by the Education Department on the teacher-student ratio in different state-run schools.

According to Education Department sources, the initial findings of the survey, which is underway, have also revealed that the distribution of teachers among state-run schools in West Bengal had often been highly irrational.

"In simple terms, this means that while in certain schools there are few teachers compared to a high number of students enrolled there, in certain schools there are too many teachers against very few students," an Education Department official said on condition of anonymity.

In fact, a debate has been going on for quite some time to merge schools with extremely low student strength with schools nearby which have enough student strengths and transfer the teachers to schools which require more teachers.

"Though this is the only way out to correct the menace of irrational teachers' distribution among the state-run schools, it is doubtful as to how far this can be practically implemented because of tremendous political interference and pressure from all quarters," the official said.

In fact, the matter of irrational distribution of teachers first came to light during the court hearing of a somewhat similar matter on February 17.

During the course of hearing, it came to the notice of Justice Biswajit Base that a school in Howrah district is having a total student strength of 13 with five teachers.

In sharp contrast, at another school in the same district, only eight teachers are catering to 550 students. This school is running without any proper teacher for crucial subjects like mathematics and geography.

Expressing regret over this irrational teacher to student ratio, Justice Basu had questioned the requirement of running schools with such few number of students. He also asked whether it is not better to withdraw the recognition of such schools and transfer the teachers posted there to schools running without adequate teaching staff.