Education sector in Bandipora on crutches as key position remain vacant

Srinagar, June 25: The education sector in north Kashmir's Bandipora district has been left on crutches as various key positions are lying vacant in the district for the past several months. The delay in filling the vacant positions is badly affecting administration of the education sector in the district.

As per the figures, the post of two Zonal Education Officers (ZEO) are lying vacant as well.

Besides this, 13 posts out of 25 higher secondary principals are lying vacant while the posts of 15 headmasters out of 50 are also lying vacant. The dearth of the heads of schools and secondary and senior secondary level has taken a toll on overall functioning of the academic institutions in the district.

Besides the administrative posts, the academic positions are also lying vacant in the district as well. Out of 312 posts of lecturers, 155 positions are lying vacant in the district as well. This has adversely affected the academics at the senior secondary level.

However, to overcome the crises, the School Education Department has started the process of hiring ‘Cluster Resource Coordinators’ to provide teaching support in high and higher secondary schools on a temporary basis for the academic year 2024-2025 in all districts of the J&K UT.

As per the notification issued, these coordinators will offer ‘teaching support’ in government high and higher secondary schools until the conclusion of the academic session 2024-2025 (31st March 2025) across Jammu and Kashmir.

As per the notification, the selection of Cluster Resource Coordinators is being done on merit basis for each district until March 31 of 2025, in accordance with the performance and feedback from the school Head.

However, as per the figures, around 30 positions of Masters and 15 posts of teachers are also vacant in the district.

Besides schools and offices, various positions are lying vacant in District Institute of Education and Training (DET) Bandipora as well. Post of DIET Principal is lying vacant in the district and the position is being manned by DIET Principal Ganderbal as his additional assignment. Also, six posts of Heads of departments in DIET and nine out of 11 positions of lecturers in DIET are also lying vacant. Also, around eight non-teaching positions are also unfilled in the district.

Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) Tasaduq Hussain Mir when contacted said the process to fill all the vacant positions has been started.

"We will fill all the vacant positions. We have also employed Cluster Resource Coordinators to address the dearth of Lecturers in schools. These cluster coordinators are providing academic support in the schools," he told Greater Kashmir.