9 teachers for 200 students

Primary school norms would be applicable for I to V classes in upper primary and for VI to VII classes. A school with 20-100 students should have four teachers and for a school with 351 to 385 students, 12 teachers would be employed

Hyderabad: In pursuit of bringing in far-reaching changes in school education in the State, the Telangana government has come up with the rationalisation norms pertaining to the teaching staff. Accordingly, the government issued orders to this effect on Saturday, effectively fulfilling the long-pending demand from the authorities in the department.

The order allows constitution of district-level committees for carrying out rationalisation which primarily means correcting and maintaining the teacher-pupil ratio as stipulated under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

The committee consists the district collector as its chairman, additional joint collector, chief executive officer of Zilla Parishad, project officer (ITDA), project officer (Rajiv Vidya Mission) and the district educational officer as its members.

Based on the enrollment in schools as per the DISE 2013-2014 report, the committee is competent to rationalise the teaching staff in schools and amalgamation of schools under various managements i.e. government, Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad schools. Surplus teachers identified shall be posted in the vacancies notified through counselling.

According to the orders, rationalisation of teaching staff in schools and amalgamation of schools shall commence immediately after completion of the SSC spot valuation every year.

The GO made it clear that on account of rationalisation there shall be no creation of any new post or reduction in sanctioned posts in a district, with district taken as a unit for each management.

Norms for rationalisation

Norms have been categorised based on the enrollment of students in the schools. The primary and upper primary schools (Class VI to VIII) with 1-19 enrollments be identified and merged with primary school and upper primary school respectively in neighbourhood areas and schools without any enrollment can be merged with a nearby school.

In tribal areas, the primary and upper primary schools without enrollment or with 1-19 enrollments can be merged with the nearby primary and upper or higher schools respectively including schools under tribal welfare department. The posts in such schools should be shifted to the respective managements in case there is no tribal school in the nearby area, the GO read.

The order stated that Head Master (HM) posts would be provided to the primary schools having strength of 151 and above and with below 150 students, HM may be adjusted against the Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) posts. The schools with 20-60 students should have at least two SGTs and schools with 361-400 students should have one head master and 10 SGTs.

According to the GO, primary school norms would be applicable for I to V classes in upper primary and for VI to VII classes. A school with 20-100 students should have four teachers and for a school with 351 to 385 students, 12 teachers would be employed.

The order stated that a time table should be as per the subjects studied by the teacher in Class X (SSC) or Inter or degree and subject methodology in Bed / DEd / language pandit training. It made it clear that a teacher cannot refuse to handle classes as per the time table.

In order to cut down excessive strength, the optimum strength of a high school class was limited to 40 and maximum to 60. The second section of a class should be formed if the strength of class exceeds 60. Third section shall be formed if the strength of the class exceeds 100, the GO said.

Even in the high school, teachers’ distribution would be based on the enrollment. A high school which has less than 75 students shall be merged with a nearby school. For a school with 75 to 200 students, a total of nine teachers, one each for maths, physical science, biological, English, Social Sciences, first language, second language and physical education. For strength between 1,181 and 1,210, a high school shall have 45 teachers, the order stated.

The GO also stated that teachers cannot refuse to handle English medium classes, where there are two or more media in a high school with one medium as English.

If two primary, upper primary and high schools are functioning in the same premises, they can be amalgamated into one primary, upper primary and high school respectively. And if two or more primary and upper primary schools are functioning under same premises, they are to be clubbed into single upper primary school.

Shifting of surplus teachers

If schools are found to have surplus SGTs, they would be shifted to the near primary, upper schools within the mandal in the same managements. If the posts are not required in the same mandal, the posts shall be shifted to other nearby needy mandals. Posts other than SGTs shall be shifted to the needy high schools / upper primary schools in the same management according to subject need.