Bardiya, December 2:

Schools in Bardiya have been coping with a shortage of teachers. This shortage has deprived the students of quality education.

According to the Bardiya District Education Office (DEO), quality of education in 57 high schools, 50 lower secondary and 177 primary schools is not good due to the lack of teachers. District education officer, Ramprasad Upadhyaya, said the quality of education can be improved only if the government provides sufficient teachers. “According to the government rule, a teacher should teach 50 students. But each teacher has been teaching 100 to 250 students here,” Upadhyaya said.

According to data furnished by the DEO, there is a shortfall of 1,067 teachers in Bardiya district. There are 862 teachers for 83,317 primary-level students, while the primary level needs 478 more teachers. Altogether 184 teachers have been teaching 30,092 lower secondary students. This level needs 501 more teachers.

Though there is a quota of 154 teachers for high schools, which have a total of 8,447 students, just 72 teachers have been teaching the high school students.

The number of students is rising, but the government is not providing enough teachers. This indifference on the part of the government has caused deterioration in quality of education.

The government is paying no heed to our requests to provide us teachers as per quotas, said Upadhyaya. Headmaster of the Dhodhari high school, Lalbabu Gupta, said only three teachers out of 12 come to school. Informing that a teacher has been teaching 200 students in his school, he demanded the government to provide teachers.