Govt takes first step on its job promise

Srinagar, Oct 30: The government on Wednesday approved the advertisement for the recruitment of 575 lecturers of 10+2 schools in the School Education Department (SED).

Minister for Education Sakina Masood (Itoo) said that the National Conference (NC)-led government has started to fulfil the promises of the government to provide jobs to the educated unemployed youth of Jammu and Kashmir.

The education minister said that she had approved the advertisement of 575 (10+2) lecturers of different streams, in the SED.

“The posts are being referred to the J&K Public Service Commission,” Itoo wrote on her X handle.

The development comes at a time when the SED has a huge vacancy for lecturers in higher secondary schools across Jammu and Kashmir.

The posts are filled by hiring the Cluster Resource Coordinators (CRCs) on a contract basis for the higher secondary schools.

The exercise was done by the department owing to the dearth of lecturers in the higher secondary schools.

Besides hiring of CRCs, the department also deputed teachers with PG degrees and PhDs, from primary and middle schools to higher secondary schools to overcome the dearth of lecturers.

These teachers were shifted to the senior secondary schools under the rationalisation process.

Earlier, around 748 CRCs were hired by SED on a contract basis for higher secondary schools.

These CRCs were recruited to provide teaching support in schools given the non-availability of subject-specific teachers and lecturers in these schools.

The selection of CRCs was done on a merit basis for each district in accordance with the performance and feedback from the school heads.

Notably, the development comes at a time when the SED did not advertise any posts for the last six years.

The approval for the recruitment of 575 10+2 lecturers is the first major initiative taken by the government to provide jobs to the educated youth.

The government said that these posts which remained vacant for the last several years had been referred to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) for recruitment on a fast-track basis to address the pressing need for qualified teaching staff for higher secondary institutions.

“Our government is committed to the promises made to the public, especially educated youth. Within 15 days of our government formation, we have decided to address the long pending demands of educated youth,” she said.

Itoo said that other issues like timely promotion of principals, in-charge lecturers, teachers, masters, and other staff are being looked into.

“Directions have been given for timely conduct of DPCs for career progression of the employees,” the education minister said.