Appraisal of Teachers’ Index in primary and upper primary level: a Geospatial Analysis

Abstract

The present study analyses the teaching-learning environment for educational development of Paschim Medinipur district, considered as an important segment of social science research. District Information System for Education (DISE) for the year 2009 – 2010 was used for the present study which has been recorded from the 4,671 primary schools and 751 upper primary schools across the entire district. To develop a teacher index map pupil-teacher ratio, pupil-female teacher ratio, school-student ratio, schoolteacher ratio, classroom-student ratio, school-classroom ratio, and the percent of trained teacher was used as influencing parameters. A relational database was generated on the GIS platform and a generalized score was given to each parameter to categorize the block to measures the educational development status. Result of the study showed average pupil-teacher ratio was 29.31percent in the district, while the district had 24.43 percent female teachers at primary level and 29.42 percent at upper primary level. Results also illustrated that schoolteacher ratio (rho – 0.52), school-student ratio (rho – 0.44), school-classroom ratio (rho – 0.60) showed positive and significant relationship with the average per cent of passed student. However, blocks of the eastern part of the district are attaining highest facility compare to the western part at both the primary and upper primary level. These efforts on the part of pioneering teachers are to be acclaimed—they have helped to demonstrate that powerful analytic tools can be made accessible to students.