Parliament Question: Qualified teachers in rural schools

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2117 ANSWERED ON 11/03/2026 Qualified teachers in rural schools 2117 Dr. M. Dhanapal: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether Government is aware of reports highlighting disparities in educational and digital infrastructure between urban and rural schools; (b) the initiatives being undertaken to ensure equitable digital access in rural areas; (c) whether programmes have been launched to improve rural school infrastructure, such as classrooms, libraries, sanitation and laboratories and the funds allocated; (d) the availability of qualified teachers in rural schools vis-à-vis urban schools; (e) whether incentives are planned to encourage teacher postings in rural areas; and (f) whether a roadmap exists to monitor and reduce dropout rates, especially among rural girl students? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a): As per UDISE+ 2024-25, the availability of Educational and Digital infrastructure of Government Schools of urban and rural areas is as under: Rural Area Urban Area Component Physical No. (%) Physical No. (%) Total Schools 928038 - 85284 - Drinking Water 921934 99.30 84930 99.60 Boys toilet 873825 95.50 74825 95.50 Girls toilet 896271 97.10 79702 97.50 Ramp 814311 87.70 74549 87.40 Electricity 874215 94.20 83352 97.70 Playground 742312 80.00 67734 79.40 Library/Book bank/Reading Corner 865707 93.30 81028 95.00 Classroom (Total) 4275302 - 664651 - Digital Infrastructure (For Class VI to XII) Total Schools 352043 - 42881 - ICT Labs 110581 31.40 22753 53.10 Smart Classrooms 158314 45.00 24980 58.30 Internet facility 227986 64.80 32426 75.60 Source: UDISE+ 2024-25(b): Education is part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution and most of the Government schools are under the administration of the State Government and its bodies. The Ministry of Education implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha to enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country, including rural areas. The initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes. Under the initiatives, funds are provided for setting up ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms according to the requirements of the State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B). A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya was initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country. States/UTs collaborate with NCERT to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements. NCERT also provides regular guidance/ feedback to States/UTs on the quality of these initiatives. The key components of PM eVidya are also aligned towards enhancing digital literacy and include 200 DTH TV channels. These channels were launched on 9th March 2024 by Hon’ble Education Minister. As per the Union Budget announcement for Financial Year 2022-23, 12 DTH channels have been expanded to 200 PM eVidya DTH TV channels and 400 Radio channels to enable all States/UTs to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages for classes 1-12. Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is the Nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs and QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades (One Nation, One Digital platform). To promote crucial critical thinking skills and to give space for creativity, more than 614 Virtual Labs and 100 Virtual skill labs (50 each in Hindi and English) have been created and made available on the DIKSHA platform. DIKSHA Offline supports areas with limited or no internet connectivity. Additionally, the Government of India, in the Budget 2025, has announced provision of broadband connectivity to all Government Secondary schools in rural areas, under the ‘BharatNet’ project to enhance digital infrastructure in remote areas by BSNL in a phased manner. (c): The Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education is implementing Samagra Shiksha from 2018-19 across the entire country. The scheme has been aligned with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. It aims to ensure that all children have access to quality education with an equitable and inclusive classroom environment which should take care of their diverse background, multilingual needs, different academic abilities and make them active participants in a continuous learning process. Under Samagra Shiksha, States/UTs are supported for strengthening of school infrastructures such as classrooms, libraries, sanitation, Laboratories etc. As per PRABANDH 2018-19 to 2025-26, the funds allocated for infrastructure in rural schools for major components are as under: Sl. No. Component Allocation of Fund (Rs in Lakhs) 1 Classrooms, Laboratories, Library etc 1429561.66 2 Boys, Girls and CWSN Toilets 267727.52 3 Drinking Facilities 37543.98 4 Ramp 12739.32 5 Electricity 36802.95 Total 1784375.43 Source: PRABANDH (2018-19-2025-26)(d) & (e): As per Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), 2024-25, out of 42.50 lakh teachers in rural schools, 39.08 lakh (91.95%) are teachers with professional qualification. Further, out of 7.62 lakh teachers in urban schools 7.05 lakhs (92.52%) are teachers with professional qualification. Recruitment of teachers, their service conditions and deployment come under the purview of the respective State Governments and Union Territory administrations. Recruitment is a continuous process and vacancies get generated due to a number of factors like retirement, resignation, increased requirement of teachers as a result of the enhanced students’ strength. The Department of School Education and Literacy, from time to time, through review meetings and advisories, requests the State Governments and UT administrations to fill up these vacancies through Autonomous Teacher Recruitment Board and their rational deployment. Further, the Central Government through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha provides financial assistance to the States and UTs to maintain appropriate Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) for various levels of schooling. (f): Under Samagra Shiksha, financial assistance is provided to States/UTs to reduce school dropout rates through measures such as opening and strengthening of schools up to senior secondary level; constructing school buildings and additional classrooms; expanding Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Avasiya Vidyalayas; building hostels under PM Janman and DA-JGUA, and providing free uniforms, textbooks, transport allowance, and stipends for CWSN girls. Enrolment and retention drives, sanitary pad vending machines, and incinerators are also supported through Samagra Shiksha. Special training and residential facilities help bring out-of-school children into formal education. Additionally, Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) and APAAR ID enable real-time monitoring of student progress and migration which help taking better measures to reduce dropout rates. ****