9 months on, Govt fails to appoint Chairman JKBOSE, Director SCERT
Srinagar, Sep 7: Despite the passage of nine months, the Jammu and Kashmir government failed to appoint the Chairman JK Board of School Education (JKBOSE) and Director SCERT. The inordinate delay in finalising the selection of the candidates for the post has raised questions over the priorities of the government.
The J&K Government on December 13 of 2024 reconstituted a search committee for recommending the panel of the candidates for the appointment as Chairman JKBOSE and the Director Jammu and Kashmir State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The Search Committee, as per the order issued by the General Administration Department (GAD), was constituted in supersession of the Government order number 252 or 2023. The constitution of the Search Committee was followed by inviting applications from the eligible candidates and later holding interaction with the shortlisted candidates for the two key positions. This newspaper carried a series of stories regarding the inordinate delay in appointment of the Chairman JKBOSE and Director SCERT. However, there is no headway in the process and both the institutions are without permanent heads.
As already reported, the Search Committee on April 4, 2025 held interaction with the shortlisted candidates for the post of Chairman JKBOSE and Director J&K State Council of Educational Research and Trainings (SCERT).
Following the interactions, a panel of three candidates each for the post of Chairman JKBOSE and Director SCERT, was submitted to the government to finalise the selection of the candidates.
The interaction was held at civil Secretariat Jammu wherein the search committee headed its chairman interacted with the 15 candidates shortlisted for the post of Chairman JKBOSE and Director SCERT.
However, the final selection is awaited despite the passage of five months since the panel was submitted to the government.
A top official said the validity of the panel is only six month, it will expire in the first week. "Given the inordinate delay, it seems the government wants to re-advertise both the posts after the expiry of the current panel of candidates lying with the government," the official, privy to the development, told Greater Kashmir. The official said that the government was not satisfied with the panel recommended by the Search Committee which caused the delay in making final selection.
Earlier, minister for education Sakina Itoo said the panel of candidates for the post of Chairman JKBOSE and Director SCERT was submitted by the search committee and the final selection was to done as per the rules.
"The positions of Chairman JKBOSE and Director SCERT are crucial, and the selected candidates must be highly competent to effectively discharge their responsibilities," she told Greater Kashmir in June this year when asked about the delay. An official said that both JKBOSE and SCERT were apex institutions and should not have been left headless for such a prolonged period.
"SCERT is a training institute while JKBOSE is equally important as it deals with the lacs of students. In other states, these two institutions are given top priorities but here these institutions are managed by officers as their additional charge," the official said. Currently, the charge of Director SCERT and Chairman JKBOSE is being managed by the Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary) Higher Education Department (HED) Shantmanu as an interim arrangement.
"Even if files are processed through the e-office, it still becomes difficult to take various decisions due to non-availability of Chairman JKBOSE and Director SCERT as physical interaction is very less," the official said.
Minister for Education Sakina Itoo when contacted admitted that the final selection for the post of JKBOSE chairman and Director SCERT was pending, due to some reasons. "Yes, the final selection has not been made yet. There were some issues with it," she said and did not divulge further details about the delay.
