Shakeel Ahmed Rather
Recently the Government of J&K has taken the initiative to rationalize the education by closing down those schools which have very small roll of children compared to number of teachers posted there so that resource optimization is achieved. It is a welcome move, in that, there are many schools in urban areas where number of teachers has been greater than number of students. But the rot in the system is so deep that ‘optimization of resources’ cannot be achieved by just making rationalization in numbers alone. There is need of rationalization in other matters as well in Education Department.
There are four important factors to be considered for real rationalization in J&K Education Department. The Recruitment, The Transfers, The Quality Control and The Infrastructure. None of these are in healthy state in J&K.
Recently recruitment policy was devised but the main thing is the selection of a candidate which has been left to SSRB and PSC. These institutions need themselves rationalization.
The transparent transfer policy based on just system in J&K has been lacking from more than past sixty years. The first casualty in politics has always been transfers. The new government’s first move has been transfers, not for improvisation of system rather to make sharing the exploits of power easier. A transfer policy which is transparent, based on choice, based on quantitative facts and free from authoritative intervention has always been lacking.
The ‘Quality Control Mechanism’ is not even available in Government dictionary. There is almost no mention ever of a mechanism to control the quality of education so that a product worth competence can be had from schools. The education is in doldrums. The Primary and Middle classes are the worst sufferers. The policy ‘to fail no one’ has worsened it further. Government has completely failed to come up with a check to control the quality. Even the Private Education sector is not in good health. Learning by rote is very much encouraged in private institutions. However, students from private institutions are good at writing and for better than the government schools especially in primary and middle classes.
Last but not least is the condition of infrastructure. There is lack of buildings, laboratories, libraries, classrooms and even the proper seating arrangement. Some schools are run under trees and some in other open areas. The availability of proper and sufficient teaching staff has always been inappropriate. The floods of last year have further worsened the situation. There is lot to be done in this area. But the available infrastructure has been underutilized. There are many schools where books are available but these are not issued to students. Laboratories are available but students are never taken into them. This is true even in urban schools. Some practicals are performed in the name only. A contractual lecturer in Physics was asked to mention the names of equipments in Physics lab but failed to recognize all the equipments. Practical education is given preference in advanced countries but here in J&K only theory is held sufficient. A student who suffers a severe lack of conceptual understanding cannot perform practicals. Therefore, it is imperative on policy makers to devise policies for imparting practical education and making a thorough testing strategy to check the real conceptual understanding of the student.
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