The schools of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are not adhering to the norms of the Right to Education Act (RTE) Act. Information gathered through RTI queries reveals that many of these schools do not meet the prescribed pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) norms mandated by the law and there is more than one class being conducted from the same room.

In MCD School New Seema Puri 1, four sections of class nursery with more than 130 children sit in the same room, room number six, with just two teachers. And the other two sections of the same class with total 70 children sit in class room number five with just one teacher. Not just there are more children in a single classroom but there are also fewer teachers. As the RTE Act says that in a primary school, for 200 children there should be at least five teachers.

Similarly, in MCD School New Seema Puri 2,120 children of two sections of class two sit in the same room with a single teacher. And two sections of class four with total 120 children sit in the same room with just one teacher. This problem is common in most of the MCD schools in the district.

Rajiv Kumar from Pardarshita, which filed the RTI, says that MCD has claimed that it has maintained the PTR in its schools. “We filed the RTI for 25 MCD schools but we got information for 20. The data is surprising. We can just imagine how so many children must be studying in a single classroom with just one teacher,” he adds.

In some other schools, where children of one section sit in one room, the average strength is more than what is prescribed in the law. The average strength in five sections of class five of MCD School Nand Nagri 0-1 is 46, whereas in Nandnagri 0-2, the average strength in class five is 54 and in class three it is 63.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which was implemented in 2010, stipulates a variety of norms that all schools must adhere to. One of the most important aspects is the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR). The law prescribes a PTR of 30 or less for schools with less than 200 enrolled students and 40 for schools with greater enrollment.