Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU: Even as rationalization of resources and initiation of other reforms have evoked a ray of hope for betterment and streamlining of once upon virtually derailed Education Department in Jammu and Kashmir, a lot more is still required to be done for bringing standard of education in Government run schools at par with private institutions and achieving hundred percent literacy in the State, the targets set by none but the then Education Minister Naeem Akhtar himself.
Though no one doubts intentions and initiatives of the then Minister, who had announced a series of measures, a day after the Demands of Grants of the Education Department were passed in the State Assembly without discussion, last year, the ground realities are not very encouraging as of now.
A number of proclaimed measures for raising standard of education in Government schools; like revisiting curriculum for promoting creativity among students, laptops to Middle School Headmasters for IT awareness among the students, more academic training programmes for Government teachers and providing basic infrastructure facilities in all the schools, are yet to be realized even after more than nine months since the announcements of the same. Further, there has been no progress on the announcement regarding formulation of a charter of duty for avoiding confusion as well as fixing role and responsibility of each officer and GPS monitoring of School Education officers.
Even as the Government has now come out with a Transfer Policy, which was notified last month, violation of own orders and norms in the past has created doubts about sincerity of the concerned authorities for ensuring a transparency in the system.
Notwithstanding the categorical announcement of Naeem Akhtar himself that transfers would be affected only in June-July in Jammu Division and in January-February in Kashmir Division, the Department issued several transfer orders on pick and choose basis during the mid-session. Earlier, in the month of July, the then Director School Education Jammu, had even transferred and adjusted several Lecturers against the posts of other subjects, vide order number DSEJ/Gaz/ Lect/ 12831-12886, dated 11-07-2015. More ironic is the fact that despite much hue and cry over this illogic order, the same was not modified with the result that students were made to suffer for the wrong done by the authorities at the top level.
Even as a major attempt was made to rationalize the resources by clubbing of school and re-positioning of teaching faculty, some Masters are still attached in the office of concerned Chief Education Officers and drawing salary for no work. These attached Masters include those whose orders of transfers to other districts were modified on different grounds, or those shifted from other districts without adjustment or whose transfer to far flung areas was stayed on the court order. Even after lapse of months, the authorities concerned have failed to take any decision on such cases of attachments.
While some Masters promoted on the basis of RBA category, are enjoying posting in Jammu city, there are instances when teachers at the verge of retirement, including female teachers, were transferred to remote areas. In one of such cases, a female Master, who was transferred to a non-existent school in far flung area, is still running from pillar to post for getting her adjusted before retirement in next few months while the authorities concerned are just passing buck to others. The said female Master is not only without salary and posting for the last 10 months but the non-adjustment has also deprived her from getting due promotion as Headmaster.
However, at the same time, there is no denial of the fact that virtually rooting out of open corruption in the Education Department, re-positioning of teachers, announcement of a Transfer Policy and activating Private School Fee Rationalization Committee are major achievements of Naeem Akhtar, who was seen frequently visiting the educational institutions for first hand assessment of the prevailing scenario in schools.
Re-positioning of the teaching staff as per requirement has virtually ended the chaotic situation in the Department where hundreds of schools were having less number of students than the teachers.
Further, the new Transfer Policy, which was notified last month, has brought a sigh of relief for the majority among teaching community. The new policy proposes tenure of the teachers between two and three years, excepting Ladakh and higher reaches, where it will be one year, posting of spouses in same general area, inter-cadre transfer of lady official in case of marriage after five years of service and giving suitable posting to the officials before one year of retirement.
Notwithstanding these achievements, the final target of Naeem Akhtar still seems a distant dream in view of some bitter facts of the School Education Department in J&K. Despite more than 20 thousand Government schools, 16.7 lac enrollment there, 143000 teaching staff and an annual budget of Rs 5432 crore for School Education, the J&K State is 6th from bottom in the country in respect of literacy while the pass percentage in the Government schools during the past few years was around 50 whereas the performance of private schools is about 25 percent higher than that. In entire Jammu province, during the last five years, just four students of Government schools have figured among the top 20 in the 10th class exams.
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