Single teacher crisis in states
According to an education ministry's 2024-25 Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report, India has 1,04,125 single-teacher schools.
Andhra Pradesh accounts for the highest number at 12,912, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 9,508 and Jharkhand at 9,172 schools.
While school starts at 9 am, she arrives at 8.30 am to maintain a small garden where she grows lady finger, mangoes and Javitri—a little oasis in the school that doesn’t even have a separate play area. After school ends at 3.30 pm, she stays on until 5 pm to complete administrative tasks like uploading daily data on government platforms despite weak internet connectivity in the area.
Students don’t get personal attention because teachers are usually busy juggling classes with administrative tasks. Hence, sometimes a student requiring extra attention gets overlooked.
According to the latest sample registration systems (SRS) report for 2023, the total fertility rate (TFR) in Andhra Pradesh is 1.5, below the national average of 1.9. TFR is the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her reproductive years. A TFR of less than 2.1 depicts a declining population.
Another issue was a June 2022 order number 117, under the YSRCP government to merge Classes 3 to 5 with high schools in a bid to restructure the schools for better learning outcomes and better administrative management.
school enrolments and attendance at many primary schools declined sharply because of Order 117. Following the merger, many parents enrolled their children in nearby private schools, leading to a drop in government school attendance.
As a result, several primary schools have been downgraded to foundation schools, now offering only Classes 1 and 2.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 supports this trend, showing enrolment of children aged 6 to 14 in Andhra Pradesh government schools fell from 70.8 percent in 2022 to 61.8 percent in 2024.
If the number of students is limited in a school, then rationalisation is done to move teachers to the school where enrolment is high
Under Andhra Pradesh state government guidelines, basic primary schools (classes 1 to 5) of up to 20 students are only eligible for a single teacher, but if the number of students is between 21 and 60, a school is eligible for a second teacher.
Chandrababu Naidu government is betting on its programme to establish 9,620 model primary schools from Classes 1 to 5 in every gram panchayat, with one teacher per class. This initiative is expected to significantly reduce the number of single-teacher schools over the next two to three years.
