Teachers Spend Only 19% Of The Time Educating Students

A report entitled 'Involvement of Teachers in Non-Teaching Activities and its Effect on Education' revealed that only 19% of the time is spent by teachers to impart knowledge. The rest of the time goes to election duty, carrying out surveys, maintaining mid-day meal registers and pulse polio campaigns. The report stated that only 42 days out of the mandated 220 days were spent on teaching in 2015-2016. According to the provisions set by Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, classes I to V (primary) should have 200 working days and classes VI to VIII (upper primary) should have 220 working days.

The states covered in the study were Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa and Uttarakhand. There are 11 crore children studying in the government schools and 47.3 lakh teachers teach in those schools. The report highlights that every year one or the other state has elections which can affect the time school teachers are able to spend in the schools.

The report also states that primary school teachers spend more proportion of their time in non-teaching activities. Government school teachers have additional responsibilities that can chew up their time. These added tasks are present all over the year. For example, the household survey happens in April or August and takes around 20 days of time. The officials are now working on solutions to curb the non-teaching time and abide by the rules of RTE act.

By: Neha Maheshwari

Content: https://www.news18.com/news/india/teachers-spend-only-19-of-their-time-in-educating-students-poll-duty-and-surveys-take-up-rest-1884135.html