Schools with just one teacher

One of the states in our country has a district that has 44 per cent of schools with a single teacher. When I first heard about it I couldn’t believe it – but the statistics published by the government confirmed it. Since we work with government functionaries fairly closely, I asked one of the Block Education Officers how he managed such a large proportion of single-teacher schools. He laughed it off and told me, “Leave aside the single-teacher schools, sir, I have 127 schools in my block that have no teachers.” I was astounded. “How do you manage?” was my obvious query. He explained, “Through internal adjustment.” I quickly realised that he was managing through informal transfers — which meant there were actually more schools with single teachers because he had drawn from the multiple-teacher schools.