Economic Survey 2023: Govt's Infrastructure Push Sees Improvement In Student-Teacher Ratio

As per the Economic Survey 2023, the government’s push on revamping school infrastructure has seen a steady increase in the student-teacher ratio in recent years.

The Economic Survey 2022-23 was tabled in parliament on January 31, 2023. Besides shedding light on the overall economic spectrum, the survey highlighted some positive shifts in the Indian education sector. Alongside increased GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) in schools, and a decline in school dropout rates, the survey also points out the positive outcomes of the government’s push on upgrading school infrastructure and resources. 

The Economic Survey 2023 marks the government’s efforts of pushing education infrastructure reforms in schools like the upgradation of basic facilities and digitisation which have been steadily promoted with a thrust on modern pedagogy. The survey further underlines that the revamping of basic infrastructure facilities in schools in terms of availability of recognised schools and skilled teachers also reflect in the improved student-teacher ratio in schools in FY22. 

Moreover, the FY22 has further witnessed continued improvement in terms of the availability of essential amenities in schools. Most government school students now have access to toilets (girls and boys), drinking water and hand-washing facilities. Moreover, schemes and initiatives like the Samagra Shiksha Scheme and Swachh Bharat Mission which prioritize drinking water and sanitation have also been instrumental in providing necessary resources to schools. 

The government under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme’s Information & Communication Technology (ICT) component, facilitates the establishment of smart classrooms and ICT labs in schools including support for hardware, educational software, and e-content for teaching.

The student-teacher ratio which marks the availability of teachers in schools, is an essential indicator which is inversely proportional to the improvement in quality of education. As per the Economic Survey, the pupil-teacher ratio has been consistently increasing at all levels from FY13 to FY22: from 34.0 to 26.2 at Primary, 23.0 to 19.6 at Upper Primary, 30.0 to 17.6 at Secondary, and 39.0 to 27.1 at the Higher Secondary level. 

The central government’s strong intent to further revamp school infrastructure, increase the number of schools, basic amenities, and number of skilled teachers is poised to further increase the number of school enrolments and reduce the school dropout rate. 

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