Deliberate Betrayal

In the education zones of Kunzer and Tangmarg, children from poor families who depend on government schools for a better future are being systematically abandoned. Not by chance, but by a calculated network of political interference, unauthorized deployments, and blatant misuse of power.

The collapse begins at the top. Both Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) posts essential for maintaining academic order and staffing have been deliberately left vacant. In their place, politically connected “incharge” officers now run the zones. These officers are not known for academic leadership but for their visible affiliations with the MLA.

In a clear attempt to centralize power and tighten political control over the education system, the Principal of GHSS Kunzer has been handed three key roles: his regular position, incharge ZEO Kunzer, and incharge Principal of GHSS Hardushoora. Likewise, the Principal HSS Chandilora has been made the acting ZEO of Zone Tangmarg. To make matters worse he has also been appointed as a member of a district-level committee—a role he has personally chosen to accept. However, such additional assignments come at a direct cost to students, especially in the schools where these officers are officially posted.

Their primary academic responsibilities are neglected in the schools where these officers are officially posted, core academic responsibilities are being sidelined, neglected in favour of administrative power plays. Both officers are local residents who openly pursue political vendettas. Neither appointment is based on merit or institutional need; both are widely seen as political placements chosen for loyalty, not competence. If the concerned MLA were truly sincere to his word, these critical posts would have been filled permanently, on merit and not handed out as political favours.

What follows is administrative chaos, with teachers shifted like pawns, classrooms abandoned, and children left without mentors. More than 190 unauthorized deployments have taken place: over 100 in Kunzer, more than 60 in Tangmarg. These moves are carried out in direct violation of Government Order No. 304-JK (Edu), dated 01-08-2024, which reserves all deployment powers with the Joint Director of School Education. But rules mean little when incompetence dictates policy. Teacher attendance is being digitally manipulated on JK Attendance web portal to falsely reflect “changed postings” from their actual schools. ZEO Kunzer is misusing the online login credentials of headmasters without their consent to edit, forge, and shift attendance records without issuing a single formal deployment order, all while maintaining a facade of legitimacy.

Schools in remote villages have become ghost institutions. Staff is siphoned off to more visible schools on main road. In one of many cases, an RRT teacher was moved from MS Hayatpora—his sanctioned post to Government High School Kralweth against norms and replaced by someone from MS Rambailpora, which was then left understaffed. This domino effect forced an RRT from MS Devbugh to teach at two schools—MS Rambailpora in the morning, MS Awalawa in the afternoon, because yet another RRT from MS Batpora was shifted to a high school again without any formal documentation besides against norms. Shockingly, GHSS and MS Kralweth, which were clubbed together, already have sufficient teachers, yet deployment from under staff schools continue to be engineered for reasons that defy logic and defy the law.

While schools across the zone struggle with severe staff shortages, ZEO Kunzer continues to reserve multiple teachers, masters, and even lecturers for his personal “media publicity” team. These educators are routinely pulled from classrooms to accompany him on school visits, shoot videos, stage photo-ops, and flood social media with curated posts portraying a thriving education system—a carefully crafted illusion that stands in stark, shameless contrast to the collapsing reality faced by students every day.

If the ZEO were truly sincere, educators ask, why hasn’t he taught even a single Physics class at GHSS Hardushoora, his official posting where the Physics lecturer post remains vacant? The situation is dire: core subject posts—Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Economics, and History have been deliberately left vacant at key institutions like GHSS Hardushoora, GHSS Lalpora GHSS kunzer and GHSS Khipora.

To make matters worse, GHSS Hardushoora has no functioning principal, and Master Grade posts across Middle, High, and Higher Secondary Schools remain largely unfilled throughout Kunzer and Tangmarg. This leadership vacuum and academic neglect have crippled these schools, stripping students of guidance and basic instruction.

This damage is worsened by a deliberate exodus of PSC-qualified lecturers, who once formed the academic backbone of higher secondary education. These lecturers had consistently raised pass percentages and improved teaching standards. But rather than retaining them, the administration transferred them out of the constituency mid-year, with no replacements provided. For many, this wasn’t mismanagement. it was a politically driven purge of professionals who refused to comply with political interference and promote a private coaching institute run by close political aides of the MLA. In a desperate attempt to mask this deliberate exodus, the incharge ZEO has deployed so-called “internal arrangement” teachers—a poor substitute for PSC-qualified lecturers. This isn’t a solution. It’s a cruel joke on students from poor families—a blatant academic fraud, masquerading as normalcy, while it quietly destroys futures.

The impact on students is devastating. With just four months left for board exams, children are sitting idle or taking guidance from under-qualified staff, if any. Parents mostly daily wage workers and farmers watch helplessly, knowing that education was their child’s only chance to escape poverty. That hope now stands crushed under political gamesmanship.

With the principal busy acting as a political functionary instead of an academic leader, GHSS Kunzer recorded a shocking 44% pass rate in this year’s Class 10 board exams, a dramatic fall that many directly attribute to this leadership failure and institutional neglect.

Worse still, students are regularly being pulled from classrooms to cheer for political events. At a recent cricket tournaments in Kunzer and Tangmarg, children were forced to line up and clap for the MLA and his workers, turning them into stage props for political gain. This isn’t just unethical—it’s a direct violation of child rights and Child Welfare and Protection Commissions must intervene. “Politics is destroying our children,” said a teacher from Tangmarg on the condition of anonymity. “We come here to teach, not campaign. But the system won’t let us do even that.”

What’s unfolding in Kunzer and Tangmarg isn’t just administrative failure. It’s a deliberate assault on the right to education for poor children. This is a calculated effort to keep the next generation uneducated, silent, and powerless because an educated child asks questions. Incompetence is being paraded as achievement while schools are gutted from within. If the LG Administration and child rights bodies do not intervene immediately, this betrayal will cost more than just marks. It will steal futures, dignity, and hope from an entire generation.

By: Mudasir Jamal