CEO, Dy CEO, 124 lecturer, 16 principal positions vacant in Kulgam

Kulgam, Jul 05: A significant shortage of lecturers and school heads in Kulgam’s higher secondary schools is hindering effective teaching and learning and is placing an additional burden on the existing staff across the district, due to an imbalanced student-teacher ratio.
According to details available with Rising Kashmir, Kulgam district, has 26 higher secondary schools, including the hanging higher secondary school GHS Katrasoo, is experiencing a significant staff shortage. Nearly every higher secondary school in the district has vacant positions from the sanctioned posts.
An official from education department said that out of the 321 sanctioned lecturer posts in these 26 higher secondary schools, only 197 are currently filled.
“As many as 124 lecturer posts are lying vacant. The vacant positions of lecturers is badly affecting the teaching learning process in the government schools of the district. Although these higher secondary schools were supposed to have cluster resource coordinators (CRCs), with 58 allocated CRCs, but these positions have not been filled yet,” an official said.
He said that “out of the 26 higher secondary schools (HSSs), only 10 have principals, leaving 16 HSSs without heads. The headless institutions and lack of adequate teaching staff are severely impacting the quality of education in these government schools.
“Even the Chief Education Officer (CEO) and Dy Chief Education Officer (Dy CEO) positions are vacant in the District. The Chief Education Officer retired more than a month ago, CEO Anantnag has been assigned additional charge of CEO Kulgam. The Dy CEO Kulgam position is vacant from many years and DDO powers of Dy CEO Kulgam have been assigned currently to a senior HSS Principal.” he said.
Another official said that the advertisement notice for the engagement of cluster resource coordinators (CRCs) has already been issued, but the positions are yet to be filled. He said that these CRCs play a crucial role in enhancing teaching learning standards in schools.
“Although two months of the current academic session have passed, the selection process for engaging CRCs has only recently begun and is still ongoing. It remains to be seen when the process will be completed and when the CRCs will physically enter the classrooms for teaching and learning,” he added.