Parents hesitant about sending wards to schools with just 1 teacher

CHENNAI: While the Tamil Nadu government has been adopting all means necessary to increase students’ admission in government schools, a large number of parents hesitate in enrolling their children to the schools run by a single teacher.

According to reports, more than 3,800 primary schools are functioning with just one teacher. A UNESCO 2021 report shows that the State had 2,631 one-teacher schools last year.

M Manimegalai, president, TN Primary School Teachers Association, said, “It’s difficult for one teacher to handle 5 classes and teach 5 subjects in each class.”

Manimegalai added that that though a vast number of parents, especially those from economically weaker sections, interested in sending their children to schools, one-teacher-for-all-system is giving them pause.

“Parents are sceptical on how one teacher can take class for so many students. So, they either enrol the children in a far-off school with many teachers or wait until the following year to enrol them. We definitely need more teachers for each school,” she said.

Meanwhile, sources tell DT Next that Vembakkam panchayat union of Tiruvannamalai having 30 schools, has been functioning with just 1 teacher for several years.

A primary teacher from Vembakkam rued, “I have more than 30 students from classes 1 to 5. With frequent training, Education Management Information System (EMIS) work and non-teaching duties, I barely get time to teach students.”

Similarly, in Tiruvallur alone, there are over 63 schools with single teachers and 17 of them are in Minjur. In Pallipattu panchayat union of Tiruvallur, sources confirm that there are 10 one-teacher schools running for 10 years.

Explaining the ordeal, one of the teachers from Pallipattu primary school said, “It has been three years since I took an off. I’m somehow managing because I have fewer students in my class. But there are schools that have one teacher for 40 students.”

Among 170 students recently admitted at a primary school in Tiruvallur, 15 students have dropped out as parents were uninterested in sending children to school with one teacher.

Though School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi in April announced that more than 9,000 teachers will be appointed, officials say no such initiatives have been taken so far.