The state legislature was informed on Monday that a total of 700 government-run primary schools in Gujarat are managed by a single teacher who teaches all students in grades 1 through 8.
In response to various questions during Question Hour, the government also stated that in the last two years, 86 government-run primary schools have been closed and 491 have been merged. The Junagadh district had the highest number of primary school closures in the state, with 25.
While Kutch has 100 such schools with one teacher each, tribal districts of Mahisagar with 74 such schools and Tapi with 59 such schools are among the 33 districts of the state that have the highest number of primary schools being run by a single teacher, stated the data tabled by state government .
Such schools are present even in districts with huge urban pockets with 43 schools in Surat, four in Ahmedabad, 38 in Vadodara and 16 schools in Rajkot having just one educator each.
Kheda and Bhavnagar are the only districts without any such schools with a single teacher.
According to data presented by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the Lok Sabha during the 2019 budget session, 92,275 elementary and secondary schools in India were operating with a single teacher during the pre-pandemic years. This is according to preliminary data from the Unified District Information System of Education (UDISE) for 2016-17.