No teachers for students at Higher Secondary level
Contractual academic arrangements expired on June 30, DSEK in slumber
Srinagar: The school education department seems to be in a deep slumber given its failure to overcome the crises which have arisen in the higher secondary schools from the past six days.
From the past one week, the students are left without lecturers at higher secondary level after the tenure of academic arrangements expired on June 30.
An official said the service period of over 1000 academic arrangements hired by the department expired on June 30 and all these posts have been left vacant in the higher secondary schools across the Valley.
“The academic session is on but the government is indecisive about making some alternate arrangements to run the academic sessions in schools till the completion of the current academic session,” an official said.
He said the students at higher secondary level have been left at the receiving end given the laxity of the department in addressing the grave issue.
It may be recalled that in February the school education department didn’t hire new academic arrangements for higher secondary schools due to imposition of model code of conduct in state. In wake of this, the services of around 1000 candidates working in schools during 2018 were re-hired till June 30.
“The irony is that the department disengaged these academic arrangements in haste without having any backup plan for students which has resulted in academic crises across Kashmir,” the official said.
As per official figures there are over 414 Higher Secondary Schools (HSS) in Kashmir with almost 2000 posts of lecturers lying vacant.
“Neither the department filled the vacancy on permanent basis nor did it manage to run the academic session smoothly this year. If they had decided to disengage the academic arrangements then there should have been another option available to avoid the crises in higher secondary schools,” the official said.
Earlier the department disengaged the subject specific masters who were recruited on contract basis to overcome the dearth of subject specific masters in schools.
The teachers were disengaged despite the recommendations submitted by the state project directorate to extend the tenure of the subject specific teachers in schools keeping in view the dearth of teachers there.
Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) Muhammad Younis Malik when contacted said the department has taken note of the issue and the matter will be resolved within days. “Administrative department has prepared a plan to overcome the crises. The final decision will be taken within days,” he said.
KV Correspondent
