Nagaon, July 13:When Durgeswar Nath teaches Class I, students of other classes make merry at Niz Kampur primary school in Nagaon district of Assam. When he is out of school, it is unofficial holiday.
Nath is the only teacher of the school which has 230 students in six classes. "I am the only teacher here. When I go to Class I, it is leisure time for the students of the other classes. The school remains closed when I go out for office work or training," Nath said.
Gorubandha Mikirgaon LP School teacher Gopal Saikia is in the same boat as Nath. "We have 330 students and I am the only teacher. I cannot take all the classes at a time as packing all the students in one class room is not easy and after all that will be a violation of guidelines. I have pleaded with the district authorities many times for additional teachers but these have not yielded any result," Saikia said.
This is then the scene of primary education in Nagaon. Reluctance of teachers to work in rural areas has brought about chaos with many schools remaining closed for many days.
Of the 2,348 primary schools in the district, 432 schools have just one teacher and there are no teachers in 30 primary schools.
Perhaps the worst sufferer of the teacher crisis is Nonoi Mudoyani primary school under Nagaon education circle, 15km from here.
Parents and guardians did not want to send their wards to the school as it had only one teacher and so, eventually, the few students there werepacked off to neighbouring schools. Later, the school management gave the house on rent to the local police outpost. Few remember now that the building that houses Nonoi police outpost was once a school.
Ratan Mudoi, a villager of Mudoyani, said, "There was just one teacher there. Hence, guardians did not want to send their wards to the school. Last year, we decided to shift the few students to the neighbouring school and the managing committee gave the house on rent to Nonoi police outpost as it does not have a building of its own."
District elementary education officer K.K. Borua, however, said he did not know about the fate of Nonoi primary school.
"If the school does not have teachers or students then it should have been officially intimated to us. Again if the district police administration takes the school building on rent from the local management committee, we should be informed. I will order an official inquiry to ascertain the facts," he told The Telegraph.
A source in the Nagaon elementary education department said hesitation on part of a section of teachers to serve in the rural areas has triggered the crisis.
Problems of single-teacher schools could be partially solved by transferring teachers from other schools, especially from the urban areas where the number of teachers is almost equal to the number of students. But political and other pressures come in the way of finding such a solution, the sources said.
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