Recruitment of qualified teachers crucial

We are worried to learn that 109 educational institutions in the country have had zero pass rates in this year's SSC exams. The students of these schools have failed despite the fact that the teacher-student ratio of these schools is above the national average of one teacher for 42 students and international average of one for 30 students. If so, then why such a debacle in the results?

The main reason identified by the educationists is the lack of qualified teachers at the secondary schools in rural areas. Particularly, there is a lack of specialised teachers in English and Math. This explains why most of these students have failed in these two subjects.

It is also common knowledge that many of the teachers in rural schools do not take classes regularly and leave schools at lunch-breaks. Our reporters have found that a number of these schools are running without headmasters and have a very low student attendance rate. All these factors combined must have contributed to this bad result. We wonder what the government institutions in charge of overseeing the activities of these schools have done all these years. Do they even visit these schools?

Needless to say, primary and secondary schools in the rural areas are in desperate need of qualified teachers, which the government must ensure that they get. At the same time, schoolteachers' monthly remuneration must be increased to a satisfactory level so that qualified people are interested to come to this profession. The government should also consider implementing the recommendations of the national education policy formulation committee-2010, which proposed a separate pay scale for teachers and formation of teachers' service commission for recruitment.