Merit based promotions, way forward
Performance and incentive driven promotions stimulate employees to constantly strive towards excellence and accomplish set targets with utmost perfection and satisfaction. In such circumstances an employee is always receptive and willing to update his skills to contribute constructively to the best of his capability for the organization, he is working for . He is absolutely clear in thought and action to execute the plan laid down by his organization with professional grit and determination. Evolving career progression opportunities need not to be sector specific. The accelerated and upward trajectory of growth of corporate sector is directly linked with the enhanced career growth opportunities it offers for its employees. The employees visualize the progression of their company as their own progression. This fosters healthy competition among employees to achieve their set targets and they explore innovative strategies and are go extra mile to ensure the steady progress of their organization.
In J&K, corporate sector is in its nascent stage and has not bloomed like it has in other parts of the country. Therefore private sector is not the first choice for our youth to seek employment. The youth primarily rely on government sector for absorption. Majority of the government departments promote their employees on the sole criteria of seniority which has severely hampered the performance of these departments. Why an employee will put an extra effort when the rationale of promoting an employee is determined by the number of in-service years rather than the professional competency.
This has seriously eroded the working efficiency of public run institutions. Performance of an employee holds no merit in his career progression. Those who perform exceedingly well in discharging their professional duties are meted with same fate as those who are professionally incompetent and fail to constructively contribute in professional capacities.
However, certain public departments have taken a lead by introducing out of turn career progression opportunities for its employees by opting for in-line departmental examinations for the promotion of its in-service candidates. The finance department of Jammu and Kashmir has been pioneering department in this regard to value and nurture the deserving in-service candidates irrespective of age, number of in-service years. Any in-service candidate after successfully completing initial two years of probation is eligible to appear in next level departmental examination, which rightly is the only viable option to get promoted to the next level. Every employee of the finance department undergoes through rigorous preparation to ascend to the next level career ladder. He is left with no choice but to continuously update himself with the in-depth understanding of domain knowledge.
This has immensely contributed to the professional efficiency of the finance department as well to its well deserving employees. The paper is set by the Public Service Commission to ensure highest degree of impartiality in promoting employees of Finance Department to the next level. The paper is of descriptive nature and the in-service candidate has to put in strenuous effort to qualify.
Existing systemic issues vis-a-vis promotions in education department
Education department of Jammu and Kashmir is one of the largest public sector enterprise as it employs bulk of employees. Education is most sensitive sector as it nurtures the learners for real life challenges. The educational landscape has undergone a paradigm shift in 21st century. The mere acquisition of rote–learning or hard memorization in modern era learners would land them no where. It is high time to ensure the realization of 21st century among modern era learners: These are the skills which will define the employment landscape in the existing century. The teacher has the central role to facilitate these skills are imbibed by the modern era learners. But are our teachers well versed with these 21st century skills like creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication.
Have our teachers evolved with time? Have they done updation of their pedagogical skills by doing away with obsolete and traditional pedagogy? There is ample scope on the part of the teacher to update his learning continuum to remain relevant in the eyes of modern era learner? However, in the existing scheme of things, why a teacher will undergo fine polishing of his skills? Irrespective of his capability and performance, in a time bound manner he will get his share of promotion to next grade, yearly increment and in-situ promotion. When it comes to promotion, all the teachers: the performers and the non-performers are treated equally.
There is no mechanism in place to reward extra-ordinary teachers. This has de-motivated better performers to the core as there is no punishment for the poor performer and no reward for the better performer. Promotions in the education department are time consuming. The transition from a teacher to a master takes more than 15 years as there is huge stagnation in the department and the transition from a teacher to a lecturer is a distant dream and only a handful of teachers are elevated as lectures based on the saturation of the subject concerned.
The intervention of departmental examination to fix the promotions needs to be taken at an earliest to safeguard the career progression of teachers. This will ensure thriving of learning atmosphere in schools as teachers will continuously strive towards professional development. Like finance department, the job to conduct departmental examinations in education department should be entrusted to JKPSC.
In-situ and next grade promotions at elementary level
At the elementary level promotions, the emphasis should to be to evaluate the in-depth understanding of the teacher on varied subject specific pedagogies, his understanding of the inclusive classroom culture, his understanding of the RPWD Act, 2016, designing of holistic progress card, nature of executing school based assessment like assessment for learning, assessment as learning and assessment of learning, classroom management, parameters of lesson plans like 4C lesson plan, 5E lesson plan, inquiry based lesson plan, professional ethics. Also the understanding of learning objectives, learning outcomes. If the teacher holds excellent command over these domains, he will surely facilitate the actualization of 21st century in modern era learners.
The impediment in its realization at the grassroots level is the age-old practice of seniority based promotions which has paved the way for inefficiencies to crept in and has therefore eroded the public faith and trust on government run institutions. Where there will be urgency on the part of the teacher to undo chalk and talk strategies and shift to latest trends and techniques in the realm of education. In case the promotion is exam based, the teacher is left with no choice but to update on varied parameters and this will go a long way to infuse new life in the education system .
Modus operandi for teacher to lecturer promotion
The transition from teacher to a lecturer is marred by plethora of issues. It takes decades for a teacher to get promoted to a lecturer and when he is finally elevated as a lecturer by the time he is usually at the fag end of his teaching career. He finds himself absolutely wanting in the classroom and is not able to do justice with his primary job of teaching of 11th and 12th class students. This issue seriously needs to be addressed. There must be an open ended exam catering all the in-service candidates who fall in the eligibility bracket to address the transition of teachers to lecturers irrespective of seniority.
Much emphasis should be given to the content of the respective subject, pedagogical skills, understanding of information and communication tools and their integration in teaching –learning process, in-depth knowledge of varied e-learning platforms for blended mode of learning . This will address the need of subject specific teachers at 10+2 level and will ensure the elevation of right kind of human resource to fill the gap. This will hugely impact the learners at the senior secondary level. However, the seniority factor cannot be entirely sidelined. The department can chalk out the modalities to keep certain percentage of posts reserved for seniority and elevation to the rest of the posts to be purely kept for an open ended departmental examination.
Dr. Mushtaq Rather, Educator from Mattan, Anantnag, Kashmir.
