Large number of Govt primary teachers untrained

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) A large number of teachers in Government primary schools are untrained.

The fact came to light in a written reply by Minister of State for Human Resource Development M A A Fatimi to the Rajya Sabha.

He said as many as 21 per cent of full-time teachers teaching at primary stage were not trained and six per cent of them were not even matriculate.

At the upper primary stage, the number of untrained teachers was 19 per cent.

The number of untrained teachers at the secondary level was 13 per cent.

The Minister said some states were providing untrained teachers professional courses approved by the National Council for Teacher Education in collaboration with the Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Also, on the request of state governments, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) designs in-service training programme, he added.

Replying to another question, he said the Pupil-Teacher Ratio(PTR) for primary stages was 1:46, while upper primary level it was 1:35 and for the secondary level it was 1:32 and for higher secondary 1:33 The national norm for PTR for primary and upper primary levels was 1:40. For the secondary and higher secondary stages, PTR of 1:30 was considered adequate, he said.

UNI