Vacant positions of lecturers in Hr Sec Schools take toll on academic of students
Srinagar, Apr 8: The vacant positions of lecturers in government higher secondary schools across Kashmir is taking a heavy toll on the academics of the students.
Amid the dearth of lecturers in higher secondary schools, the department has again started shifting Post Graduate (PG) subject specific teachers from primary and middle schools to the higher secondary schools as an interim arrangement to run the show.
As per the official figures almost 4000 posts of lecturers of different subjects are vacant in schools across Jammu and Kashmir and there has been no recruitment in the department for the last 10 years.
The School Education Department (SED) earlier revealed in the Legislative Assembly that no recruitment has been done in the department since 2018. Besides no recruitments, the delay in engaging the Cluster Resource Persons (CRC) by the respective directorates has also added to the crises as the students enrolled in the higher secondary schools do not have teachers available to teach their respective subjects.
"Last year around 1700 CRCs each were engaged by the department in the Kashmir and Jammu division to overcome the crises. But they have been disengaged while schools are without lecturers," and official told Greater Kashmir.
The official said the department should have allowed these CRCs to continue, on certain conditions, till new hiring of CRC is done for schools.
"But we fail to understand the current policies of the department. Some higher secondary schools have enrolled students in 20 different subjects but lecturers are only available for four to five subjects. Under these circumstances how will the schools manage to retain the students," the official said.
A higher secondary school Principal told Greater Kashmir that the department later puts all the blame on the heads of the institutions and teachers if there is low pass percentage in Board exams.
"But the fault lies with the system. The administration is not seriously working on it. The administrative department is aware of the ground situation and they should have set the system in order to avoid inconvenience to the students," the principal said, wishing not to be named.
Amid the crises, the chief education officers have now started shifting teachers, possessing PG degrees, from primary and middle schools to higher secondary schools to overcome the dearth of lecturers. "By doing this, we are leaving the elementary level schools understaffed. The elementary level schools, particularly the primary, also need adequate staff as they form the foundation stage of the education system," an official said.
As the schools have reopened from March, the higher secondary schools are facing acute dearth to provide teachers to the senior secondary class students. An official said the department was aware of the issue and steps are being taken to address the problem.
"Department is seriously working on it. We are hopeful that some decision in this regard will be taken in coming days," the official told Greater Kashmir.
