Urgent Call to Action: Odisha's Government Addresses Teacher Shortage in Schools

Immediate Teacher Deployment in Odisha Schools

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has instructed district collectors to promptly assign teachers to elementary schools to ensure adherence to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

In a communication dated August 6, N Thirumala Naik, the secretary of the School and Mass Education (S&ME) department, emphasized the need for a thorough review of all single-teacher schools within each district. He urged collectors to take immediate action to ensure that every school meets the minimum teacher requirements as outlined in the RTE Act.

Collectors have been asked to submit an action taken report (ATR) within two weeks, prioritizing schools with higher student enrollments.

According to official data, Odisha currently has 1,458 single-teacher schools, impacting the education of approximately 60,000 students for the 2025–26 academic year.

The secretary highlighted that the RTE Act, particularly Sections 19 and 25, along with the accompanying Schedule, establishes essential norms and standards for schools, including the required Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) and the minimum number of teachers needed in elementary education.

Naik pointed out that recent data from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISED+) indicates that many government schools in the state are operating with only one teacher, which negatively impacts educational quality and violates RTE norms.

As a result, he urged district collectors to complete the rationalization of these schools within a month and provide an ATR to the department within 15 days of receiving the letter, marking this issue as 'most urgent.'