Srinagar/ Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Forum has issued a “Call Attention” move on the subsequential degradation of education system in Jammu and Kashmir, the Forum termed the situation graver, following the chronic drawbacks in the system having piled up for past quite some quantum of time due to ‘disregard’ and indifferent approach of the stakeholders.
Notwithstanding its increasing bad effects on the career of school children the Forum Chairman and former trade union leader Abdul Qayoom Wani has raised a “Calling Attention” move here which cautions that if educational reforms are not taken in time, then worst is in store for future!
Talking on the academic scenario, Forum chairman, Abdul Qayoom Wani said that sixty percent zonal education offices were without zonal Education officers, fifty percent schools without principals, fifty percent high schools without headmasters. Fourty percent subjects were without lecturers, Extreme situation remains that even contractual appointment has not been done in different streams in school education and higher education thus students career has been put on stake at a time when schools and colleges had opened after three years of lockdown in J and K.
Wani said that transfers have been turned into a ‘syndrome’ wherein the new transfer policy ATD is full of flaws with the department violating its own norms of mid-session rule of transfers that prohibit any transfers for the sake of non-disturbance in the schooling and teaching learning process, but now the transfers of teachers, masters and lecturers under ATD have become a syndrome which has badly affected the delivery of teachers in class rooms due to the psycho phenomena of double mindedness.
“If with all these loop holes still education sector is believed as a priority sector then which is a neglected sector? Govt should clear” Wani questioned
Taking a dig on the higher officers of the education department Wani said that unfortunately these officers now unlike earlier times practise ‘appeasement and more loyal than the king’ approach and as such do no good to bring the derailing track back. The irony does not end here but the authorities have been putting teachers on non academic assignments viz road duties, surveys, data entry operators and what not outside the department and punish them when the results of their primary job come out poor, is this justified? The Society asks.
Criticizing the authorities of education for languishing the promotions of teachers, the Society said that the process of promotions and confirmations is so slow that even when an employee retires from the service or leaves for heavenly abode but the poor employee still remains unconfirmed and in this age of information technology, the ever updated data continues to enlist showing them in the status of in-service lists earns a double shame only for the administrators.
There was a routine in education department that officers would take surprise visits to different areas and assess the developmental situation and problems faced by students and teachers as per ground reality but today the river flows in reverse direction as these officers behave like politicians, they make vast publicity of their visits so that teachers and their representatives receive them with garlands which only results into arranged photo shows than to assess the ground situation.
Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Forum urges the govt to prioritize education sector in letter and spirit by relegating its forgotten glory. Forum has suggested the Govt to devise a strategy to assess the work and behavior of officers of education from base to bureaucracy equally, to select the top official of the department within the education domain, to incorporate Education Administrative Service in Civil services for the appointment of future teachers, to empower officers of education at zonal, district and regional level, to empower schools administration for in-school educational trainings and orientations for teachers and to deliver and collect exam material directly from schools by the Board of School Education at the time of examination.
Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Forum reiterated its demand of revoking of order in which private schools possessing state land or kahcharai have been asked for closure. Forum has demanded for the settlement of issue by alternate ways by means of lease or land transfer for the safeguard of educational career of school children and progress of educational sector in JK.
