Inside a Chhattisgarh school where absence turned a sweeper into a teacher

A viral video showed a sweeper conducting class in a primary school. It raised troubling questions about classrooms that exist without teachers.

The blackboard had lessons written on it, children sat quietly in front, and a class was underway but the person teaching was not a teacher, but a sweeper.

In Jamjhor village of Lakhanpur development block in Surguja district, Chhattisgarh, a government primary school functioned under unusual circumstances.

A school sweeper was seen teaching children while appointed teachers were missing. The video spread widely on social media and sparked concern about the condition of classrooms in rural India.

The incident gained attention at a time when national surveys have repeatedly pointed to gaps in basic learning and classroom presence.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 reports that average teacher attendance in government primary schools rose to 87.5 per cent — an improvement but still leaving more than one in ten teachers absent on a typical day.

ASER’s school checks in 2024 also visited over 15,700 government primary schools as part of its national sample.