The Bengal government is set to start a teacher rationalisation policy to ensure no state-aided school suffers from a poor student-teacher ratio, the move coming after the number of Madhyamik examinees dropped by around 4 lakh this year.

“Primarily, it has been assumed that poor pupil-teacher ratio in many schools, particularly in rural areas, has led to the situation. This is probably the first time the number of Madhyamik examinees has fallen so much. This is why teacher rationalisation is the need of the hour,” said a senior government official.

According to sources, the Nabanna top brass was upset that only 6.98 lakh examinees will appear in Madhyamik compared to last year’s 10.98 lakh. The school education department was asked to find out the reasons behind the huge dip.

“The school education department decided to find out reasons behind the drop in number of examinees. Primarily, it has been found that poor pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) could be the primary reason. According to the Right to Education Act, the PTR should be 30:1 in schools. But in rural areas, many schools reported a PTR of 70:1 or higher,” said a source.

Sources in the education department pointed out that the PTR of many schools in the rural areas worsened after the state government introduced a transfer policy. Initially, the policy started with mutual transfer between two teachers of the same subject. Later on, general transfers abounded where teachers applied to get posted in places of their convenience.

“This hit rural schools hard as most teachers in village schools sought transfers to urban schools. As most applications were approved, schools in rural areas suffered. Nobody applied to be posted in villages,” said an official aware of the development.

Hence, classes in many subjects in village schools could not be held and students could not be prepared for the board exam. The number of registered students in Class X was more than 11 lakh but fewer than 7 lakh ultimately registered to appear forMadhyamik.

The new rationalisation policy states:

■ Schools where PTR is very low will get teachers from those with surplus teachers.

■ The low PTR school where a teacher is transferred should be in the same district where the teacher was posted earlier.

■ Newly recruited teachers should be posted in schools with low PTR.

■ The director of education will prepare two lists — one with low PTR and one with schools with surplus teachers— with data from district inspectors. Rationalisation will be implemented according to the lists.

■ No transfer applications will be entertained from the teachers of schools with low PTR.

Education department sources, however, said low PTR in schools can’t be resolved through the new policy till fresh recruitment of teachers is done as there are over 15,000 vacancies.