17 Tripura schools running with single teacher

Agartala, Jun 8 (UNI) Even after spending more than Rs 200 crore on infrastructure development of the education sector under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in the last three years, 17 government schools in Tripura have only a single teacher while 206 schools including five high schools have just two so far.

Presenting the statistics at the ongoing Budget Session of the Tripura Assembly here yesterday, state Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty disclosed that there were altogether 2,298 existing posts of teachers at different levels and the figure had increased further during the past one month.

Replying to a query of opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath, Mr Chakraborty said the government was planning to fill the posts soon but there was no plan of setting up Teachers' Service Commission (TSC) as on date.

The opposition MLAs, contradicting the decision said, ''Since there is no commission, the department has been appointing the CPI(M) cadres without considering their merit, which diminishes the standard of education as well as deprives the students from quality learning.'' They demanded early setting up of TSC in the state and to conduct proper tests before appointing teachers in the schools and added, ''Since quality education is the right of a student, the government should ensure it.'' UNI BB DPM BDP BST1254