Teachers teach only for 42 days in a year!

The Right to Education Act (2009) mandates that there should be 220 school days for classes VI to VIII (upper primary) in an academic year, and 200 school days for classes for I to V (primary), but, on an average, a teacher spends hardly 42 days teaching his/her students. And what do they do the rest of the days? They perform activities which have nothing to do with their primary job of teaching. They are on election duties, carry out various government surveys, go out to distribute polio vaccines in their communities, and maintain mid-day meal registers.

These are the findings of a study conducted in five states-- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa and Uttarakhand-- by National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.