J&K Education Dept Refutes Claims of Teacher Shortage in Schools, Highlights Measures Taken for Student Welfare and Infrastructure Development

JAMMU, FEBRUARY 10: Reacting sharply to the news item, “Nearly 80 % of Schools lack enough Subject Teachers” published in the section of paper, dated 9th Feb 2024, School Education Department Jammu and Kashmir, has refuted the claim and statistics given in the news item. It is clarified that, by the department that, there are 18723 Govt. Schools in Jammu and Kashmir as on date, out of which, 8966 are Primary Schools,7228 are Upper Primary, 1741High Schools and 788 HSS Schools. 97116 Teachers have been placed in the Govt. Schools of Jammu and Kashmir, for teaching from the Pre-Primary to the Sr. secondary classes.

As per the recruitment made in the Schools, through Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board and RET Scheme of the Govt., No subject Specific teachers has been recruited or engaged. These are all general line Teachers which are capable of teaching Mathematics, Science, SST and Languages in the Schools.

The Pupil Teacher Ration in case of Primary School is1:13, Upper Primary Schools is 1:9,in Secondary School it is 1:14 and at HSS level it is 1:30, compared to PTR of 26, 19, 17 and 27 at the Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Sr. Secondary respectively at the National level. There were some Schools in the Jammu and Kashmir, which were having single teacher but J&K was among the few States/UT to implement the School Complex system policy as mandated under NEP 2020. Under the Guidelines issued for School Complex System, 762 School Complexes have been formed in the UT of J&K and rationalization of Teachers has been made at different level, to ensure that, No single Teacher School exists in the UT.

The Unified District Information System (UDISE) for School Education launched by the Ministry of the School Education, has the fields of Science, Maths, SST and Language Teachers in the Schools, as suchthe Data is filled by the Teachers from the School Level to ensure the compliances and the data of the updated UDISE reflects the availability of more than 90 % teachers in Upper Primary Schools, in all the subjects, though they are competent and qualified to teach the subjects other than those reflected against them. As such, It is clarified that, there is no dearth of Teachers in the Upper Primary Schools to teach any specific Subjects. However, the subject specific teachers are recruited at Higher Secondary Level and there was a deficiency of those Subject specific teachers in the beginning of the academic year 2023-24. In order to address that, the Govt. has engaged 1496 Cluster ResourceCoordinators, who are subject specific and have been deployed in the remote School, where there was shortage of Teachers. It is further added that, the Govt. of Jammu and Kahsmir is spending almost 18 Crores every year to strengthen the Libraries and the Library books have been provided in all the 18723 Schools from primary to Sr. Secondary level, for making student knowledge enriched about the general awareness, environment and other Health & hygienic Conditions, as envisaged in the Library Guidelines. Efforts are also made to construct the special Library rooms, where the same doesn’t exist and 617 are library rooms are under construction in different schools.Presently, Libraries have been established in all the Schools as per the space availability.

As per UDISE, 10104 schools are without concrete ramps for which efforts are being made to construct the Concrete ramps, in phased manner. Temporary Ramps in the leftover aschools, have been placed and functional. Recently, funds amounting, to Rs 2.62 Crores have also been released for construction of Ramps in Schools. Moreover, the schools where Children with Special Needs are enrolled, have been given priority for the construction of ramps.

Similarly, 8339 Schools, which had availability of Land has play ground facility. Further, funding is being provided in case of Schools, having space for playground, for its proper development. However, in order to ensure that, the Children have access to the Sports facilities, where Play ground facility could not be developed due to lack of Land availability, the Govt. has developed Play ground in every Panchayat, where students of the schools also enjoy sports activities. Moreover, 100 Model Play Grounds with cost of Rs. 20.00 Crores are being developed, under Samagra Shiksha, besides this no. of Play Grounds, have been taken up under Capex grants.

The School Education Department has also recently conducted Annual Transfer Drive, where in more than, 13000 Teachers were transferred on the basis of Zone formation as per the Transfer Policy. The transfers were made through online mechanism in a very Transparent manner and Teachers have been posted in the schools, keeping students and enrolment in the schools as primary focus. Further, the School Education Department is committed to enhance the competency of the Teachers and lot of stressis being laid on the trainings of teachers for their orientation to improve the learning outcomes of the students. Capacity building programmes/workshops/ Orientation/ Training Programme under TTAP, in 2023-24 stand attended by more than 40000 Teachers, wherein their orientation has been done.

The 17% increase in the Enrolment in 2022-23 is tantamount to the improvement of the basic amenities in the Schools. The Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir, is committed to revamp the overall education system of the Union Territory and in the recent years more than, 3500 Civil works have been completed under Samagra Shiksha and equal no. of works are under execution at different stages. Similarly, under UT Capex, more than 2000 works are under execution and no. of works have been completed. Model Kindergartens are being developed. Infrastructure has been improved in the Schools, as on the date, 92% Schools are having own Buildings. Furthermore, for the year 2024-25, the department of school education and literacy GoI has approved mega plan of Rs. 1665 Crores for the holistic development of the children studying in the School of the Jammu and Kashmir.