Srinagar, Apr 26: Persistent political influence in teacher deployments is severely affecting the functioning of rural schools in Jammu and Kashmir, with staff shortages continuing despite repeated promises of reform in the education sector.
Successive governments have pledged to streamline the School Education Department, particularly in ensuring a balanced pupil-teacher ratio (PTR). However, officials acknowledge that these efforts have largely remained on paper, with little visible impact on ground realities.
The issue was raised several times in the Legislative Assembly since last year, and even before that, several orders were issued for streamlining PTR in schools. But all these initiatives remained confined to only speeches and papers.
The official statistics not only raise eyebrows but also expose the crippling system. According to officials, the leaders raising their voices about the lopsided PTR in schools are managing the deployment of teachers from rural to other schools located in cities and towns.
The schools located in rural areas have a good number of students enrolled, while the city schools, except a few, depict a grim picture of the system.
While the rural schools are craving for adequate staff, in most of the schools located in towns and city areas, besides other easily accessible locations, the teachers are haphazardly posted, irrespective of the requirement.
“All these schools have surplus staff, and in some cases, teachers somehow outnumber the students. But nobody takes action on it officially because all of them are influential,” a top official told Greater Kashmir.
Amid this, there are dozens of those teachers who were transferred to very hard zones for one or two years, but are now stuck there without any intervention from the government.
“The teachers who were actually recruited in these far off areas to serve the community are deployed in city and town schools,” the official said.
He said the schools in urban areas do not have any shortage of teachers despite meagre enrollment but the rural schools continue to struggle with inadequate staff.
“The basic reason for this is the gap between the issuance of orders and their implementation on the ground. Whatever is claimed in speeches or in papers is contrary to the ground reality,” he said.
In the recently concluded budget session of the Legislative Assembly, some legislators raised the issue about the dearth of teachers and lecturers in the schools of their constituency.
But, according to officials, the same MLAs are seen issuing letters to the ministers and pleading for deployment of teachers from far off areas to towns.
“Recently, the education minister was heard telling MLAs that if all the teachers are to be deployed in towns and cities, then who will run the schools in villages?” the official privy to the development told Greater Kashmir.
Recently, MLA Gurez raised the issue about the dearth of lecturers in his constituency and sought action from the government.
The education minister, Sakina Itoo, outrightly informed the Assembly that dozens of teachers and lecturers from Gurez were working on deployment in Bandipora and Srinagar.
“I will send them back to their original place of postings, provided I don’t see any political interference in it,” she said.
Her response hinted towards the political interference.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Minister for Education Sakina Itoo said that it has become a herculean task for the department as everybody wants to serve in urban areas.
“But the system cannot work like that. We are not entertaining any recommendations for deployment of teachers. Only those cases are reviewed or considered which have health issues,” she said.
