Traditionally, there is no hard and fast rule as to the exact number of students in a classroom for each teacher to teach at a time. However, as a personal choice, it would be very suggestible to have a maximum of twenty students in a class, at one time.

The teacher-student ratio is an important concept to keep in mind, which sadly is very often neglected, especially in a third world country like India where the population of children who need education by far exceeds the number of teachers willing to teach them.

A classroom that is overflowing with children is not only difficult to teach, but it is also next to impossible. The same standards, teaching quality, and even teacher-student interaction are by far better when the ratio of teachers and students is properly managed and practically set.

A single teacher cannot possibly be expected to teach a class of hundred students, or even fifty students, with the same level of dedication, individual consideration, and enthusiasm as he or she would to a class of fifteen or twenty.

The bonding between student and teacher, the openness, the healthy approachable relationship, is so important in education and learning. It shouldn’t be neglected as much as it is.

When a classroom is full of corners with students crammed into tiny chairs and tables, sharing textbooks and muttering, shoveling amongst each other - you can imagine almost fifty percent of the teacher’s time being consumed in just getting everyone to settle down and pay attention. What a mighty task that sounds like!

Many schools and educational institutions, especially those that focus on making monetary profit more than actual education, don’t focus on this issue.

To them, more students mean more fees, and more fees mean more money. Educational institutions should ideally not be run for the money, put simply. And if government-run institutes had an iota of dignity in them, an iota of sincerity and well establishment, there wouldn’t be so much of a need to go for private money-making schools in the first place.

But that is not the case and so in the long run, both teachers and students must suffer, and the society as a whole must emerge with degrees, but uneducated. Surely, a student who attends a class of hundred, with a lone teacher at the front yelling their lungs out trying to get everyone’s attention, is not going to be able to learn very well, no matter how much he or she may concentrate. The whole purpose of a classroom, as being a place of learning and growth, is therefore defeated. The only way out of this is to begin maintaining a healthy student-teacher ratio; to have more teachers come forward to teach, not for the money, but for the love of imparting knowledge and helping the next generation move forward. KidsChaupal takes an interdisciplinary approach to learning, using arts, music, theatre, entrepreneurship, and tech to give open up kids' interests and perspectives.