UDISE: CEOs warned against de-clubbing schools on their own

Srinagar, Nov 21: The School Education Department (SED) has warned the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) across Jammu and Kashmir against de-clubbing the already clubbed schools falling in their jurisdiction, on their own.

In this regard, a letter has been sent to all the CEOs from the office of the Project Director SamagraShiksha J&K stating that the officers should not make any de-clubbing of the clubbed schools at their level which may invite action against such defaulting officers.

“The Chief Education Officers of some of the districts of J&K have been requesting this office to grant them permission for de-clubbing the clubbed institutions shown in UDISE+ 2023-24 in their respective area of their jurisdictions,” the letter reads.

It states that the clubbing of the schools had been done as per the lists furnished by CEOs after seeking the necessary approval of the Administrative Department.

“All the Chief Education Officers are therefore enjoined upon not to make any de-clubbing of the clubbed schools at their level which may invite action against such defaulting officers,” it reads.

However, the CEOs have been asked that any such request of extreme exigency with full justification and background may be routed through the Director of School Education Jammu and Kashmir division and the same is placed before the Administrative Department for a decision on the matter as per merit of the case.

The SED has officially declared the clubbed or merged schools as “closed schools” in the latest UDISE-2023 data, submitted to the Government of India (GoI).

The move is aimed at bringing transparency and accuracy in the education sector of J&K and putting an end to the misleading practice of presenting non-functional schools as separate institutions, which was prevailing in the region.

Over the years, the J&K government merged over 2400 government schools with the majority of them being established under the SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA) scheme.

However, despite the merger, these schools continued to be listed as separate institutions in the UDISE data during the previous years.