RAWALPINDI: The teacher-student ratio is an indicator of education quality but Pakistan ranked lowest in South Asia as far as this ratio is concerned.

Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India have better teacher-student ratio in classrooms compared to Pakistan.

“In Pakistani primary schools, on average, one teacher is teaching over 40 students which is against international standards,” said Raja Shahid Mubarik, the president of Punjab Teacher Union (PTU), Rawalpindi.

He stated this while sharing with this reporter the teacher-student ratios in South Asian countries which were prepared by his team after gathering information from various websites.

“We will share our findings with EDO (education) Qazi Zahoorul Haq and request him to make transfers of teachers in the ongoing reallocation policy implementation drive in the light of international standards,” he said.

During the drive, the EDO office is collecting data about teachers to reallocate them in various schools to meet the 1-40 teacher-pupil ratio set by the Punjab government.

However, the teacher union has been requesting the department to depute one teacher for 30 students.

“It will be difficult for the teachers to keep focus on 40 students. We are not against reallocation policy but want 1-30 ratio in the classroom,” said Azmat Israil, an office-bearer of the PTU.

According to the findings of Mr Mubarik and his team, which are also available on the World Bank website, in Nepal the teacher-pupil ratio is 1:27, in Sri Lanka 1:24, India 1:33, Bhutan 1:24 and in Maldives 1:14.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd , 2014Published in Dawn, June 22nd , 2014