Srinagar, Apr 26: The delay in the fresh recruitment and continuous retirements of the officers has thrown up a major challenge for the School Education Department (SED).
The department has key positions vacant, affecting day to day affairs of the offices and the schools throughout Kashmir. Baramulla is one such district in north Kashmir which is facing a acute shortage teaching staff while a huge number of schools are also headless.
The key positions are also lying vacant in the district, affecting day to day affairs of the department at grass root level. As per the official figures, the district has eight out of 18 zones without permanent ZEOs while the District Institute of Education and Trainings (DIET) is also without a principal as well.
The district also has 15 higher secondary schools out of 61 without principal and the charge has been given to the equivalent rank officials. As per the figures around 61 out of 140 high schools are without fulltime headmasters. In the district, the rural schools are facing acute dearth of teachers while the urban schools are having surplus staff. Talking to Greater Kashmir, minister for education Sakina Itoo said that there were lot of vacancies at the time of the formation of the government. “A lot of work has been done since we took over. We also held several DPCs and promotions were ordered as well,” she said. She however said that there has been no recruitment in the education department since 2019 which she attributed to the “difficulties” being faced in the department. “As there was recruitment for these years, so many people retired from the department due to which vacancies got created with each passing year,” she said. The minister however said that the department somehow managed the crisis by way of rationalisation of the staff. “Even we filled some of the vacancies during the last one and a half year but it is a continuous process because people retire every year which again creates vacancy in the department,” she said. She said the department was still working on the issue and efforts were made to fill all the vacancies. “We have done a lot of work on this. If there are vacancies anywhere we will post the staff there. If someone has retired, new people will be sent to those positions,” she said.
