Agenda for the new education minister

The newly-formed government in Jammu and Kashmir recently allocated the portfolio of School Education and Higher Education Department to Sakina Itoo, along with her other cabinet colleagues.

The move has raised the expectations from the academicians including school teachers and college professors who remained under duress during the past few years by one way or the other.

After assuming her office as the new Education Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, the teachers in schools and colleges who have always been at forefront in running the daily affairs of their respective departments, need to be embraced and to be listened to.

The teachers, be it in colleges or schools must be provided a peaceful atmosphere and be allowed to work under an umbrella where they can deliver with discernible outcomes. The teachers need to be given space to explore their creative abilities at school and college level.

During the post August 2019 scenario and during Covid-19 pandemic in Valley, whole society is witness to how the teachers at school and college level managed to keep the academics of the students on track.

The school teachers in both government and private schools, besides college teachers, played a pivotal role in keeping the studies going on despite facing odds amid the slow speed of internet and other disruptions post abrogation of Article 370 and post during Covid pandemic.

The educational institutions were closed in mid-March 2020 post imposition of lockdown announced by the government of India to contain spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Amid those challenges, the teachers prepared e-content, distributed curriculum-based home assignments to lacs of children at their doorsteps.

The way the school teachers played their role, it gave a recognition to the teaching community as well as the government-run schools. However, instead of being rewarded for their contribution, the teachers always remain the soft target for the department, both overtly and covertly.

In 2022, when the schools reopened after a prolonged period of time, the department instead of rewarding teachers for their contribution during tough time put the blame on the teachers for declining enrollment in the schools.

The School Education Department (SED) in 2022 initiated the process to identify the persons and declare them responsible for “bringing disrepute to the department” on account of “devastating decline” in student enrollment in government schools which resulted in the closure of 4000 schools till date.

It came as a shock for the teaching community which was blamed for the poor enrollment in schools despite the fact that the government schools witness downfall in enrollment not because of teachers but due to the lack of basic facilities in these institutions.

Over the years, the department failed to maintain a balance between curricular and extracurricular activities in schools as teachers were told to reach SKICC early morning, participate in daily activities at the expense of children's education. They were feeling sense of humiliation in many respects.

No doubt teachers are supposed to take every assignment being the employee of the department but it is mandatory for the authorities to treat teachers with respect. Besides giving them assignments, they should be given much-needed sense of belonging.

"We are part of the society as well as the system. We are always ready to work on our assignments. But violation of respect and dignity only impairs system's efficiency," said a teacher, urging the new education minister to minimise teachers' involvement in state functions to enable them to focus on teaching and research.

In the recent years, we have seen that female teachers were posted 50 to 70 kilometers away from their districts which raises questions on the output at their place of postings. Such reshuffle ordered under the guise of Annual Transfer Drive (ATD) only de-motivated and de-moralised the hard working teachers while the influential lot was given special preference.

So, it is important for the new education minister to ensure that transfer of teachers, which is a regular feature of the department, is ordered on merits. The department should ensure that the teachers should always feel motivated and be given a sense of dignity while serving in the department.

Besides government sector, we also have young and highly qualified youth serving as teachers in private education sector as well. Unfortunately, the teachers in private sector are exploited bluntly by the school management who are paid meagre salaries despite working for six to seven hours in schools. The teachers in private schools are the backbone of these educational institutions but are given least preference when it comes to their welfare and progress. Barring few institutions, the private school teachers are exploited. They work hard like their counterparts in government run schools, if not more, but unfortunately, they are paid minimum wages.

"Our plea for dignified wages must be considered by the government on priority. Our salaries could be based on the strength of students in a particular school. More the student roll, more salary should be given to us. It should be ensured that we get hike in our salary annually," a private school teacher said.

Now coming to another point, the education department in 2015 initiated a process to give special status to the teachers and it was proposed that teacher should be offered a chair when he/she visits any office. But the proposal died a silent death and instead of offering any respect, the authorities always put the blame on teachers for "ruining" the reputation of the department to hide their own failures.

To conclude, the grievances of the teachers across schools and colleges need special attention of the new education minister. Many teachers in colleges have been posted outside their districts which impairs their work at the expense of students' excellence in academics. Such grievances need to be addressed on priority.