Cuttack, Feb. 25: The state government has claimed in Orissa High Court that the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in the elementary schools across the state is higher than the stipulated norms.

The Right To Education Act prescribes one teacher for 30 students in the lower primary schools and one for 35 in the upper primary schools.

In an affidavit, school and mass education secretary Ranjana Chopra said: "At present, the PTR at the primary level is 25.67 and the upper primary level is 25.80 in the state.""Two lakh teachers are available at the elementary level," Chopra stated in her affidavit.

The court was hearing a PIL to achieve 100 per cent literacy in elementary education in the state. Taking serious note of a media report, the high court had suo motu registered the PIL. The affidavit was submitted yesterday in pursuance of an order issued on February 4.

Amicus curiae Prafulla Kumar Rath, however, said: "There can be no rationale for claiming a higher PTR when there are 8,600 single teacher elementary schools in the state, according to government's own figures submitted in earlier affidavits."

Chopra, in an affidavit filed earlier, had conceded that 36,302 of the 1.42 lakh posts of teachers under the regular elementary cadre were vacant. Besides, 6,837 of the 92,337 posts under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan were also vacant.

"With regard to filling up of the vacancy of teachers, all possible steps have been taken to fill up the vacancies by March 31, 2016," Chopra had assured the court in an affidavit filed on February 4.

According to the affidavits presented in court, there are 53,455 government elementary schools, and the number of children enrolled is 51,96,285.

In the affidavit, Chopra said all elementary schools in the state would have boys and girls toilets by August and drinking water facility by November.

Of the 53,455 government elementary schools, 42,409 do not have playgrounds. While 1,871 schools do not have girls' toilets, 3,966 schools do not have boys' toilets. Around 482 schools do not have the provision of drinking water facility, the affidavit claimed.

The division bench of acting Chief Justice Pradip Mohanty and Justice Biswajit Mohanty fixed March 10 for the next hearing on the PIL and directed the state government to file by then an affidavit indicating the list of schools that did not have toilets and drinking water facilities.

Initiating the PIL proceedings on August 25 last, the court had observed that the children were to be traced and brought back to school.

It had further decided to "monitor continuously" the required co-ordination among several departments "as a mission of achieving 100 per cent literacy among the children of six years of age and above".