Secretary of the State School Education department, Bikram Sen, acknowledges the fact. “Of the 1,84,000 sanctioned posts, about 62,000 are lying vacant,” said Sen.

What worries the state academia is that no teacher recruitment drives have been successfully conducted in the state over the past five years. Even as the government initiated a recruitment drive in 2006, the process was marred by legal wrangles and had to be stalled.

“Increasing the number of teachers is a cause for concern. Those studying in schools which are two-teacher strong or less tend to show a negative performance graph,” said Professor Achin Chakraborty from the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata.

Professor Chakraborty, also involved with the Pratichi Education Report II as an advisor, added: “The issue of single-teacher schools is a sensitive subject. The state government usually appoints another teacher from the Sarva Shikhsa Abhiyaan and makes it a two-teacher school.”

The Partichi Education Report II points out that Purulia, one of the most backward districts of the state, has about 17.38 per cent schools run by single teachers, a figure higher than any other district in the state. “There are nearly five percent single teacher schools in West Midnapore district. The highest being Binpur II with 19.4 percent single-teacher primary schools, followed by Binpur I with 12 per cent. In Kolkata, the percentage of single-teacher schools is about 6.64 per cent,” reads the report.

The report goes on to add that single-teacher schools “suffer from poor functioning” and it also makes a reference to Purulia where a few single-teacher schools had to be closed when the lone teacher available could not take classes on account of some official work.

“Even when he/she was present, it appeared to be an impossible task to conduct four classes (Classes I-IV ),” the report says.

The teachers’ association also expresses concern on the matter. “Firstly, it is important to increase the number of teachers in schools, following which the issues of home task and private tuition can be considered,” said Ashok Maity, general secretary of West Bengal Headmasters’ Association.

In its latest bid to recruit teachers, the state government has already conducted written exams in 16 districts of the state. The government, however, is facing a volley of litigations moved in the Calcutta High Court by PTTI trainees demanding some advantage in the recruitment process.