Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government announced on Monday that no schools, from Primary to High School levels, have been upgraded to the next higher level in the past two years.
Currently, there is no established policy for upgrading schools, as such decisions require signifi-cant financial resources and infrastructure, which must be approved by the Department of Fi-nance.
In response to a question raised by MLA Arjun Singh Raju during the Assembly session, the min-ister for school education stated that there are a total of 18,723 government schools in Jammu and Kashmir. This includes 8,943 Primary Schools, 7,255 Middle Schools, 1,744 High Schools, and 781 Higher Secondary Schools. The total number of teachers, including Cluster Resource Coordinators (CRCs), stands at 78,271.
Prior to 2019, the School Education Department employed Contractual Lecturers. However, since then, no new lecturers have been hired on a contractual basis. Instead, the department has been temporarily engaging CRCs on an annual basis since 2023. For the 2024-2025 period, 1,496 CRCs have been appointed, with a monthly honorarium of Rs. 25,000 until March 31, 2025. The department has not been hiring teachers on a contractual basis since the freeze.
The minister acknowledged a shortage of teachers in schools, primarily due to the freeze on teacher recruitment since 2019. This freeze was a result of a decision by the State Administrative Council (SAC) to halt the filling of General Line Teacher positions in order to facilitate the con-version of Rehbar-e-Taleem (RET) teachers into Grade-II and Grade-III teachers.
Despite this, the department is actively addressing the shortage through the rationalization of staff, the engagement of CRCs, and the promotion of various cadres to optimize the teaching workforce and maintain an appropriate pupil-teacher ratio in government schools.
Positions for General Line Teachers have been frozen to accommodate the conversion of Regu-larized ReTs into Teacher Grade-II/III, as per a decision made by the State Advisory Committee in 2018. This was done to address salary concerns of Regularized ReTs. At present, there are no available teacher vacancies within the Department of School Education, which makes it difficult to assess the financial implications or constraints of hiring new teachers. The minister noted that once these positions are unfrozen, the necessary financial resources can be evaluated.
Regarding school upgrades, the in-charge minister confirmed that no schools have been upgraded from Primary to High School levels in the past two years. Currently, there is no policy in place for upgrading schools, as such actions require substantial financial investment and infrastructure, which must be approved by the Department of Finance.
The Department of School Education is focused on strengthening both the human and capital infrastructure of schools, particularly those that have already been upgraded.
The minister said Middle School Kabi was approved for elevation to High School status during the Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting for the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) for 2019-20. However, High School classes at Kabi have not yet commenced due to pending admin-istrative approval. The minister indicated that the department will assess the feasibility of starting classes at the next level after evaluating the requirements and availability of teaching staff.
