*Graduation to be minimum basic qualification
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 10: In order to provide quality education and to enable the students of J&K to compete with their counterparts in other parts of the country, the State Government has decided to amend the rules for recruitment of teachers and an SRO in this regard is likely to be issued shortly. Around 3000 posts of teachers would be filled by the recruiting agency by strictly adhering to the amended rules.
Official sources told EXCELIOR that during the detailed exercise carried out by the School Education Department on the directions of the Minister Incharge Naeem Akhtar it has been observed that 10+2 is not the sufficient basic qualification for recruitment of teachers from the quality education point of view.
“It has further been noted that 10+2 qualified teachers are generally not coming up to the expectations of the students community as such quality of education in the Government schools is getting compromised, which amounts to playing with the future of the students”, sources further said, adding “moreover, there is no habit among the Government teachers to enhance their knowledge by participating in the orientation programmes, which also acts as stumbling block in ensuring quality education”.
Mentioning that graduation with BEd is mandatory for promotion of teachers to the Master Grade, sources said, “in order to obtain this benefit the teachers recruited on the basis of 10+2 qualification resort to obtaining degrees through distance mode, which has already become a matter of serious concern”, adding “it has also come to the notice of the Government that many teachers obtain degrees even from unrecognized universities and on denial of promotions they indulge into litigations with the Government”.
Keeping all these aspects in the mind, the Government has decided to amend the existing rules and necessary exercise like obtaining approval of the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti and getting the amended rules vetted from the Department of ARI and Trainings has already been completed, sources informed, adding shortly the General Administration Department will issue SRO relating to the amended rules.
“For the recruitment of teachers in future, graduation will be the basic qualification”, sources further informed, adding “this will not only be a step towards ensuring quality education to the students in Government schools but would also help the Government in handling the promotion of teachers to Masters Grade easily”.
Stating that at present the recruitment of teachers is not made subject-wise, sources said that under the amended rules 30% of the total posts to be referred to the recruiting agency would be reserved for Mathematics and Science subjects. “This is being done to inculcate scientific temper among the students as well as to overcome deficiency of teachers of these subjects in the Government schools”, sources added.
According to the sources, there is huge shortage of Mathematics teachers in Kashmir valley while as shortage of Science teachers is in both the provinces of the State. As per the National Assessment Survey, 87% and 85% students scored marks from 0 to 50% in Mathematics and Science respectively in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
“This clearly indicates that the quality of education being imparted in the State needs to be strengthened through appropriate measures”, observed the Department of School Education and Literacy of the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development in its latest communication to the Jammu and Kashmir’s School Education Department.
Following issuance of SRO by the General Administration Department, the School Education Department would refer around 3000 posts of teachers to the recruiting agency for filling up under the amended rules, sources further said, adding these posts include those which have been decided to be filled-up on fast track basis.
They further said that all these steps would go a long way in providing quality education and to enable the students of J&K to compete with their counterparts in other parts of the country.
Follow our WhatsApp channel