The Patna district administration on Thursday identified 105 campuses that housed more than one school and merged 168 government schools, bringing their number down from 356 to 168.

This was happening because teachers wanted to remain posted in urban areas while rural areas bore the brunt of the teacher scarcity problem.

One campus had as many as six schools, Thursday's review showed.

District magistrate (DM) Sanjay Kumar Agarwal found three schools functioning inside Rajbanshi Nagar Middle School. Agarwal found students of three different schools in one classroom. Different registers were maintained for the different schools and there were also three headmasters.

"There was total chaos at the school," Agarwal said. "Students had no clue which school they belonged to, where they would get scholarship from and which one will provide them a mid-day meal."

Rajbanshi Nagar Middle School, Adarash Madhya Vidyalaya Rajbanshi Nagar and Prathmik Vidayalaya Rajbanshi Nagar were all functioning from the same campus but the salary slip of all three schools came under different school names.

Also, there were three headmasters in three different rooms. "There is scarcity of rooms at the government school and such things will affect quality of education," Agarwal said. "In one school there were six rooms, of which four were occupied by four headmasters. In another campus, the mid-day meal was being cooked at four places. Because of shortage of rooms, students of different classes (even subjects) were being tutored by different teachers in the same room."

Ramna Middle School accommodates two more schools, namely Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya in Gulzarbagh and Primary School Badi Patan Devi. Four teachers attend to 118 students at the Primary School in Dawoodbigha, which also houses the Primary School, Jakuilhaq, where three teachers teach 56 students.

After the inspection on Thursday, the DM merged 168 government schools. "From 356 government schools, the number has now come down to 168 after merging," Agarwal said. "After the merger, teachers will now be deputed according to number of students and extras would be transferred to rural areas where there is shortage of teachers. This should help bring in quality education." Even school headmasters and principals would be transferred and adjusted in other schools.

The DM said the teachers intentionally taught in schools where there was no workload and served as a hideout while there are five teachers for 500 students in rural schools. Urban schools have 10 to 12 teachers for less than 100 students. The merger should bring about systematic improvement in government schools, the DM said.

Till now, no action had been taken but the DM said the administration was keeping a close eye and next time teachers, headmasters and principals would be taken to task if more such cases emerged.

The DM said rationalisation of teachers would put an end to scarcity of teachers in rural areas.

Education department sources said the department had been quiet about the issue for the past six months and it was chief minister Nitish Kumar who brought the matter to light. "The chief minister gave directions to set things right without taking any action against anyone," a senior department official saidon condition of anonymity. "In other words, taking action against anyone would have put the earlier government in the dock and the chief minister wanted to avoid any controversy."