Education ministry, J&K SED to deliberate on last year’s achievements, new year target

Srinagar, Jan 6: The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) Ministry of Education (MoE) is scheduled to convene a meeting with the J&K School Education Department (SED) to take a review of the achievements and targets met in 2024.

The meeting will be convened ahead of the Annual Project Board (PAB) meeting tentatively scheduled in the third week of February, 2025.

During the meeting the DSEL, MoE will review Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) for 2025-26 financial year.

An official said the MoE will hold an interaction with education departments of all the States and UTs in which a review of the J&K SED will be taken as well.

"The meeting will review the preparation of the J&K SED for the upcoming financial year while a feedback will be taken about the achievements made in the targets which were communicated for the current financial year in the last PAB meeting," the official said.

About the targets achieved, the official said the 2024 year witnessed a delay in release of the installment of funds due to the Lok Sabha Elections and the Assembly elections held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2024.

"Given the imposition of Model Code of Conduct twice in the year because of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the first installment of the funds from GoI was released in the recent past," the official said.

He said the first installment of funds worth Rs 200 crore, released from MoE was utilised by the J&K government to meet the expenditures on account of the salary of teachers.

"We reflected the expenditure of the funds in salary as the government utilised it to provide salary to the Grade II and III teachers absorbed in the department," the official said. He said recently another Rs 200 was released by MoE and against which the J&K government released an equal share of 10 percent as per the norms. "Besides the release of total Rs 400 crores, we also utilised the unspent funds worth Rs 500 which were unspent for the last two to three years released as non recurring grants," the official said.