Sohail Punjabi
Jammu: State’s education department on Thursday admitted that election duty by its teachers adversely affects the education and academic activities of students in the State-run Schools.
Education minister Syed Altaf Bukhari responded in affirmative to a question by MLA Dina Nath Bhagat on whether government teachers are deployed for electoral duties.
“The Government Teachers are presently deployed as Booth Level Officers for election-related work, which adversely affects the education and academic activities of students in the State-run Schools,” he said in a written reply to the question.
However, he said, the School Education Department, has taken up the matter with the General Administration Department for exempting teaching staff of the School Education Department from election-related duties in order to minimize interruption in teaching activities in the schools.
The minister also stated that only a few among 24000 schools record pass percentage between zero and 20 per cent and that stringent action against the teaching faculty is taken by impounding their annual increments, till they improve their performance.
“There are around 24000 Government Schools in the State and there has been a gradual improvement in the pass percentage of students studying in these schools. Only a few schools record pass percentage between zero and 20 per cent and in such cases, the Department takes stringent action against the teaching faculty by impounding their annual increments, till they improve their performance,” he said.
“The Chief Education Officers have also been asked to keep a tab on such delinquent teachers so that the students are not made to suffer due to poor quality of teaching staff.”
In line with the departmental policy to improve quality of education being imparted in Government Schools, the minister said, the School Education Department has initiated a slew of measures to improve the quality so that students of Government Schools are not at a disadvantageous position vis-a-vis peers in private Schools. “In line with this stated objective, the department has revisited recruitment rules to attract the best available talent at the time of direct recruitment.”
Accordingly, he said, the Department amended recruitment rules pertaining to teachers by revising minimum qualification from 10+2 to graduation and earmarking 30% posts for Science and Mathematics graduates.
“The Department is also examining additional proposals for amendment of the recruitment rules to further improve the quality of appointment of teachers, which shall have a cascading effect on the improvement of results in Government Schools.”
The minister also responded in negative to another question on whether most of the schools were under staffed.
“After rationalization, the shortage of staff in majority of the Schools in the State has been addressed. However, in certain cases, subject specific teachers are deployed in some Schools on need-basis to meet the requirement of students.”
The Department, he said, has also referred 2154 posts of teachers to SSB for their filling up under direct recruitment quota on a fast-track basis. “The Department has identified more vacancies of Teachers, which shall be referred to SSB shortly to overcome shortage of Teachers.”
To another question whether government schools teachers remain involved in arranging the Mid-Day Meals, the minister said: “Cook-cum-helpers have been engaged to manage mid-day meals for the students on daily basis. The teacher in-charge mid day meal maintains record in the way as other teachers maintain records of local school funds. However, Government is actively considering to outsource the MDM Scheme through some NGOs like AkshaypaWa.”
