Jammu, Apr 08: The government of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday admitted that there is shortage of staff in the department of school education across the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
In response to a question raised by MLA Sajjad Shaheen in the Legislative Assembly regarding the staff deficiency and lack of infrastructure in J&K schools , the government informed the house that the shortage was because for last five years no recruitment of teachers could be made in view of the SAC decision of 2018 where in the posts of general line teachers have been frozen for conversion of ReTs into teacher grade II & III which has caused void in the lower rung teaching staff.
Moreover, due to large number of retirements in recent years and subsequent non filling up of the vacant posts in different carders also added to the shortage of staff, the govt said.
The government stated that the department of school education had also to run a number of up-graded schools without the creation of staff through internal arrangement which caused deficiency of teaching staff.
However, the department of school education is making all efforts to overcome the deficiency of teaching and non teaching staff in the schools by way of proper rationalisation, deployment of cluster resource coordinators as subject specific teachers in High & Higher secondary schools including Banihal- Gool constituency.
The government further stated that regarding the deficiency of the infrastructure in the schools across Jammu and Kashmir including Banihal – Gool constituency, the school education department is focusing on the augmentation of the existing infrastructure and creation of new infrastructure under UT Capex and Samagra Shiksha grants for providing all required basic facilities in the schools.
“There is no immediate proposal for up-gradaation of schools. Up-gradation requires huge financial requirements, however J&k is not in a position to go for the same given the financial position,” Government informed the house.
It was revealed that there is no proposal for reviving the Rehbar e Taleem scheme abolished during the governor’s rule in 2018. it is a fact that the scheme has been instrumental in minimising the shortage of staff in far flung areas. The government further stated that at present there is no proposal for formulation of any transfer policy for ReTs in the department, govt said.
