Mizoramhas the second best pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in the country (one teacher for every 13 students) after(one teacher for every 10 students) according to the unified district information system for Education (UDISE) plus 2021-22 report released by the Union education ministry.
The high PTR in the two states can be attributed to low enrolment. While Sikkim has the lowest enrolment among all states (1.35 lakh), the enrolment in Mizoram is 3.09 lakh, which is the third lowest in the country.
The report states that Sikkim has 13,613 teachers in 1,259 schools, which implies that on an Average there are 11 teachers and 108 students in each school. In Mizoram, 3,911 schools have 23,366 teachers, which on average means there are six teachers and 79 students per school.
According to the report, nationally on an average, there is one teacher for 28 students while the enrolment is 26.52 crore.
Among the other northeastern states, Assam has 60,859 schools, which is the highest in the region. The states enrolment is 75.44 lakh students. With 3.52 lakh teachers the PTR stands at 21. The number of teachers in each school in Assam is on a par with the national average of six while the enrollment per school is a modest 124.
The PTR in all the northeastern states has been recorded to be better than the national average of 28Arunachal (15),Meghalaya(21), Manipur (16), Nagaland (14), Tripura (20).
Incidentally, Nagaland has double the number of teachers in a school compared to the scenario in Assam or the national average.
All NE states have a better PTR compared to Delhis figure of 30, but educationists said the northeastern states need more teachers in a school to pay more attention to the students. Barring Nagaland, all NE states have less than 10 teachers, while Meghalaya is at the bottom of the category with only four teachers per school.