A government school in rural Kashmir has been facing a severe shortage of teachers for the past few years. The 250 students who are enrolled in the Hatdu punzu Middle School do not the get the education they are promised. Sajad Rasool reports in today’s video why this might be the case. ”We don’t get taught all the subjects here”, says one student. It’s not just the students who are fed-up of the situation; a teacher reveals how between just three staff members, they are expected to teach around 40 classes a day. Despite their dedication, it is a schedule that they obviously cannot keep up with. Added to this is the apathy of the Zonal Education Officer who cannot be bothered to provide the school with the much-needed teachers. The present teacher-student ratio in the middle school is around one teacher for every 80 students. According to the Right to Education Act 2009 it should be around one teacher for every thirty. The 2011 Census reveals that many parts of Jammu and Kashmir have been able to push up their literacy levels to 68% as opposed to 55% ten years ago. However there are still some areas like Budgam that lag behind. A few days ago an IndiaUnheard Community Correspondent from Jharkhand shared a similar story. The RTE, which is a landmark judgement for India in terms of it’s potential to educate millions of children is clearly falling short of being able to keep the promises it makes.

- Kayonaaz Kalyanwala