PUNE: The debate on whether English and Maths subjects should be optional in higher school is at its peak, with many experts saying that schools that have just one or two teachers contribute most to failure.According to records from the District Information System for Education ( DISE ) 2014-15, thousands of students in primary and secondary schools in the state are still learning with just one teacher or two teachers for each school as the state government has frozen recruitment.These teachers, moreover, are often not specialised in a subject and end up teaching all the subjects to students, thus decreasing the quality of education.Retired teacher of a Zilla Parishad school from Ahmednagar, Rajesh Khandge, said that the ground reality at many schools is far from ideal.Khandge said, "Every year, the state government data in DISE shows several schools with just one teacher. These teachers do not necessarily specialise in any particular subject but are forced to teach every subject because of several reasons, including the freeze on recruitment policy and teacher allocation. Students have to bear the brunt of this. I feel the state government must study all these factors before they finalise the proposal."Khandge further added that it is not surprising if a majority of those who fail in English and Maths emerge from such schools, but a detailed study on this can be done by the expert committee that will be proposing changes in optional English, Maths subjects.If one teacher goes on leave or stays absent for any reason, the school remains closed on a working day. At least 3.15% schools function with a single teacher. Only 62% schools in urban areas have a regular headmaster and over 1,600 schools have less than 25 students, as per the DISE data. "Strengthening teacher education, training and empowering schools with enough teachers should be the prime aim of the education department before introducing these schemes of optional subjects," an expert said.According to the annual report (2014-15) of the human resource and development ministry, a single teacher runs the show in 1,05,630 government elementary and secondary schools in the country, with Madhya Pradesh emerging as the worst state. As many as 17,874 of the institutions have just one teacher each.Uttar Pradesh with 17,602 has the second highest number of elementary and secondary schools where single teachers perform the role of educators for multiple classes. UP is followed by Rajasthan (13,575), Andhra Pradesh (9,540) and Jharkhand (7,391),Education activist Matin Mujawar said, "While successive central governments have stressed the right to education, the ground reality is far from the specified objectives, with states flouting norms of the RTE Act. According to RTE guidelines, there has to be one teacher for every 30 to 35 students in government and private schools."