State of the Education Report for India-2021

On the occasion of World Teacher’s Day, “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)” released its “State of the Education Report (SOER)-2021 for India: No Teachers, No Class”, on October 5, 2021.

Key Facts

  • This report is the annual flagship publication of UNESCO New Delhi. Report is prepared on the basis of extensive research.
  • This is the third edition of the State of Education Report.
  • This year, report focuses on the theme of “teachers, teaching and teacher education”, highlighting that work of teaching is complex.
  • The report attempts to provide understanding on the key aspects of the teaching profession and also provides a profile of 9.6 million teaching workforce.
  • Report also highlights the challenges of intricate teaching routine as well as their professional development.
  • Findings in the report were prepared on the basis of analysis of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data.

Findings of the report

  • As per report, there are around 1.2 lakh single-teacher schools in India. It accounts for 7.15 percent of 11.51 lakh schools. Out of this, 89 per cent are in rural areas.
  • 51 percent of total schools are employing 95 lakh teachers.
  • Report notes that, India requires 11.16 lakh additional teachers to meet the current shortfall.
  • States with high percentage of single-teacher schools are- Arunachal Pradesh (18.22%), Goa (16.08%), Telangana (15.71%), Andhra Pradesh (14.4%), Jharkhand (13.81%), Uttarakhand (13.64%), Madhya Pradesh (13.08 %) and Rajasthan (10.08 %).

UNESCO Recommendations 

UNESCO suggests:

  1. To improve the terms of employment of teachers across public and private schools
  2. To increase the number of teachers and improve their working conditions across the North Eastern states, rural areas as well as aspirational districts.
  3. To recognize teachers as frontline workers etc.

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