340 Tripura Schools with 6,492 Students Run by Single Teacher: UDISE+ 2024–25 Report

The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) 2024–25 report, recently released by the Ministry of Education, paints a complex picture of the education sector in Tripura. While the state has undeniably made remarkable strides in ensuring access to schooling and maintaining key metrics, the data simultaneously highlights a critical and pressing staffing issue: the persistent single teacher challenge that affects hundreds of institutions and thousands of students.

The report, which for the first time aligns its structure with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s 5+3+3+4 framework, confirms the state’s success in broad educational goals. However, the discovery that 340 schools are being run by just a single educator casts a shadow over the overall progress, raising serious questions about the quality of education being delivered in these specific pockets.

The Scale of the Single Teacher Challenge

The figures presented in the UDISE+ 2024–25 report lay bare the exact dimensions of this staffing disparity, underscoring the enormous responsibility resting on the shoulders of a small number of dedicated teachers.

• Number of Affected Schools: A total of 340 schools in Tripura are identified as functioning with only one teacher.
• Student Enrolment: These 340 schools collectively cater to an enrolment of 6,492 students, placing an immense educational and administrative load on the sole instructor.
• Overall State Data: In contrast, the state’s education sector as a whole manages 4,943 schools with 6,90,084 students, supported by 37,733 teachers. The overall Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) is reported at 24:1, closely matching the national average.

This comparison reveals a stark internal disparity: while the overall PTR suggests an effective teacher distribution, the reality on the ground is that a critical mass of schools is operating far below the required staffing standards, facing the everyday single teacher challenge. Furthermore, the report notes that 10.8 percent of schools have an enrolment of fewer than 10 students, often contributing to the occurrence of the single teacher challenge.

Examining the Educational Burden

For a teacher in any of the 340 affected schools, the reality is one of impossible demands. The single teacher challenge means one person is responsible for teaching multiple grades, often spanning primary and preparatory levels, across all subjects, simultaneously. This educational burden includes:

• Multi-Grade Teaching: Instructing students of different age groups and learning levels within the same classroom, requiring constant shifts in focus and methodology.
• Administrative Duties: Managing all school-level administration, including record-keeping, UDISE+ data entry, mid-day meal supervision, and coordination with the education department.
• Curricular Coverage: Ensuring comprehensive coverage of the curriculum for all classes despite severe time and resource constraints.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Assessing the progress of nearly 6,500 students across 340 schools, a logistical and pedagogical difficulty that inevitably impacts learning outcomes.

This operational reality makes maintaining quality of education extremely difficult, potentially leading to lower learning attainment levels for students caught in the single teacher challenge schools.

The Wider Context: Strengths and Disparities

The UDISE+ report is not without its positive highlights, which ironically underscore the need to address the single teacher challenge to ensure equitable progress:

• Equity and Access: The state maintains steady participation of girls, with good gender parity in schooling. Dropout rates are also relatively controlled across the preparatory (1.30%), middle (3.20%), and secondary (8.8%) levels.
• Digital and Physical Infrastructure: All schools in Tripura are reported to have electricity, and over 97 percent possess separate toilet facilities for boys and girls. Functional drinking water is available in 4,109 schools.
• Staffing Pattern Disparity: A telling detail in the report concerns the disparity in staffing across different management types:
  • Government Schools: Employ 27,601 teachers, averaging seven teachers per school.
  • Private Schools: Employ 8,195 teachers, averaging over sixteen teachers per institution, indicating a vastly different resource reality.

While government schools average seven teachers, the existence of 340 schools with just one teacher means there is an acute concentration of under-staffing in specific, often remote, areas. This disproportionate staffing pattern is the root of the glaring single teacher challenge that the administration must tackle.

Conclusion: An Urgent Call for Targeted Recruitment

The UDISE+ 2024–25 report serves as a clear mandate for the Tripura government. While celebrating the achievements in educational access and overall efficiency, the government must treat the single teacher challenge as an immediate priority. The nearly 6,500 students in these 340 schools are entitled to the same quality of education as their peers in better-staffed institutions. Addressing this requires a targeted recruitment drive, strategic deployment of teachers to fill vacancies in remote areas, and perhaps, incentives to encourage educators to serve in these challenging locations. Only by resolving this fundamental single teacher challenge can Tripura ensure true equity in its educational system and sustain its overall progress.