The elephant in the classroom

Why in the News

Even the modest norms of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) remain unmet in a large number of schools. The main reason so many children learn so little is a lack of active teaching, and teachers blame non-teaching duties for eating into classroom time.

What does the RTE Act expect of a teacher’s time?

1. Protected teaching role: Section 27 of the RTE Act bars using teachers for “any non-educational purposes” except census, disaster relief and election duties, like a fence around teaching time.
2. Minimum working week: The Act prescribes at least 45 hours of work a week for school teachers.
3. Classroom norm: The Act also carries an implicit norm of at least four hours of classroom teaching a day in primary schools.
4. Annual minimum: That norm adds up to at least 800 classroom hours over 200 days.
5. The takeaway: The law already leaves room in a teacher’s week for non-teaching tasks outside class, so lost teaching time is a problem of how hours are used.

How have non-teaching duties grown?

1. Teachers’ complaint: Teachers say non-teaching duties constantly encroach on teaching time, which is partly but not wholly true.
2. Elastic loophole: “Educational purposes” is loosely defined, so it stretches to cover digital attendance, extensive record-keeping and opening Aadhaar-linked bank accounts for children.
3. Student ID work: Teachers also generate APAAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) numbers, a single ID linking each student’s academic records.
4. Double record burden: Record-keeping has ballooned because schools now keep both paper records and digital records linked to Aadhaar.

Why does teaching time still lose out?

1. Spare hours on paper: Over a six-day week, a primary-school teacher’s 45 working hours leave up to 21 hours outside the classroom for non-teaching tasks.
2. Time after preparation: Even after setting aside about one hour a day for class preparation, about 15 hours a week would remain.
3. Time clash: Many teachers habitually complete non-teaching tasks during classroom hours, so teaching time becomes the casualty.
4. Idle classrooms: Children are often left to mill around or sit on their own for hours on end.
5. Lifelong cost: Children who learn little at school are pushed into the ranks of low-paid casual workers later in life.

Is poor infrastructure the real obstacle?

1. Hidden disrepair: Schools remain rife with leaky roofs, clogged toilets, broken handpumps and missing playgrounds. Official statistics such as the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) suggest otherwise.
2. Facilities audit: An audit of government schools begun by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) aims to identify the underlying structural failures.
3. Shoddy contracts: More spending alone will not fix schools, because corrupt contractors have made plenty of money from shoddy work.
4. Teaching first: Government school teaching can still improve without better infrastructure, starting with more active teaching.

Challenges

1. Summons during school hours: Teachers are called to the Block Resource Centre in school hours, or told on WhatsApp to submit reports “immediately”.
2. Avoiding long days: Some teachers do non-teaching tasks in class time to avoid long working days.
3. No maintenance system: No effective system ensures regular repair and maintenance of school facilities.
4. Maintenance funds cut: In Jharkhand, the small school funds for maintenance were discontinued in the last two years, so schools struggle even to buy mops and brooms.

Way Forward

1. Sacrosanct classroom hours: Define classroom hours clearly and keep them free of non-teaching work.
2. Department-level settlement: Settle excessive non-teaching duties between teachers and the school education department, outside classroom time.
3. Fewer duties, clerical help: Reduce non-teaching duties and give schools clerical assistance for record-keeping.
4. Infrastructure with upkeep: Improve school infrastructure together with a working system for its repair and maintenance.

Conclusion

Learning in government schools now turns on protecting teaching time, with infrastructure and work culture improving together rather than one waiting for the other. The marker to watch is whether school education departments fix demarcated classroom hours, so that millions of children stop paying for dysfunctional schools.

Government Initiatives for School Education

1. Samagra Shiksha: It integrates schooling from pre-school to Class 12, focusing on universal access, special needs support and bringing out-of-school children back.
2. NIPUN Bharat Mission: It targets universal foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) for every child by the end of Grade 3.
3. PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India): It upgrades over 14,500 schools into exemplar institutions with smart classrooms, technology labs and eco-friendly infrastructure.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2018] Consider the following statements: 1. As per the Right to Education (RTE) Act, to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in a State, a person would be required to possess the minimum qualification laid down by the concerned State Council of Teacher Education. 2. As per the RTE Act, for teaching primary classes, a candidate is required to pass a Teacher Eligibility Test conducted in accordance with the National Council of Teacher Education guidelines. 3. In India, more than 90% of teacher education institutions are directly under the State Governments Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 and 2 (b) 2 only (c) 1 and 3 (d) 3 only ANSWER: (b)”