Gurgaon: More than 1,000 govt schools in Haryana are still being run by a single teacher, laying bare the strain on a system where one person is often forced to be the headmaster, clerk, meal supervisor and parent coordinator all at once.According to NITI Aayog’s 2024-25 report based on UDISE+ data, 1,066 govt schools in the state have been functioning with just one teacher despite enrolling nearly 43,400 students.The report says single-teacher schools are “a serious concern” across the country, especially in rural and sparsely populated areas. In such schools, one teacher is expected to handle classroom teaching, administrative work, record-keeping, mid-day meal duties and coordination with parents. Multi-grade classrooms are common, making grade-specific teaching and meaningful classroom engagement far more difficult.Ashok Prajapati, president of District Primary Teachers Association, said more than 20 govt schools in the city have long been functioning with only one teacher. “To plug gaps, teachers are often sent on short-term deputation to other schools for a few days or months. These stopgap arrangements disrupt studies both in the schools facing shortages and those from which teachers are pulled out,” he added.According to the report, Haryana has 23,494 govt schools in all. These include 9,569 primary schools for classes 1 to 5; 2,655 schools for classes 1 to 8; 2,217 middle schools for classes 6 to 8; 1,783 schools for classes 1 to 10; 925 schools for classes 6 to 10; 3,782 schools for classes 1 to 12 and 2,557 schools for classes 6 to 12.The data also shows how sharply school availability narrows beyond the early years.Only 16.1% of the state’s govt facilities offer uninterrupted schooling from classes 1 to 12. Even so, Haryana is well above the national average of 5.4%, suggesting the state performs better than much of the country on this count despite limited resources.On pupil-teacher ratio too, Haryana is within prescribed norms at several stages and outperforms the national average in key categories. The state’s PTR is 21:1 at primary level, 10:1 at upper primary, 17:1 at secondary and 11:1 at higher secondary. The national averages are 20:1, 17:1, 15:1 and 23:1, respectively.But these averages mask a deeper staffing crisis. The report shows there are 7,626 teacher vacancies at the elementary level in Haryana, 4,070 in secondary schools and 3,847 in senior secondary schools. It also notes that shortages, particularly in rural areas, continue to hurt learning outcomes, student retention and progression between grades.The report also flags gaps in infrastructure for children with special needs. Only 51.6% of govt schools in Haryana have functional toilets for such students, though this is a marked improvement from 26.2% in 2018-19. Digital infrastructure has improved too: 50.3% of schools now have functional smart classrooms and 97.3% have computer facilities, according to the report.
