Arteev Sharma | The News Now
Jammu: Government schools in Jammu and Kashmir are grappling with a severe shortage of teaching staff, with more than 8,300 vacancies for Masters, Headmasters, Lecturers, and Principals remaining unfilled across the Union Territory.
What adds to the concern is that no new recruitments have been made in the last five years, leaving thousands of highly-qualified, unemployed youth in distress.
In response to a query by BJP MLA, Rajiv Jasrotia, Minister for School Education Sakeena Masood (Itoo) disclosed that at-least 1,665 posts of Masters are vacant across ten districts in the Jammu division. The situation is especially alarming in the erstwhile Doda region (Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban districts), where nearly 600 posts of Masters alone remain unfilled.
The government schools are also facing severe shortage of lecturer and headmaster positions, with 2,218 lecturer posts and 402 headmaster posts remaining vacant in government schools across Jammu region. Rajouri and Doda districts are among the worst affected, each facing a shortfall of over 300 lecturers. Adding to the crisis, more than 40 higher secondary schools in the region are without Principals.
“All the vacancies of teachers have been frozen in terms of State Administrative Council (SAC) Decision No. 166/22/2018, dated 07.12.2018 for transition of Regularized Rehbar-e-Taleem (RRETs) into Teacher Grade-II (across Jammu and Kashmir). As such, no new recruitments could be made against the posts of teachers for last five years,” Sakeena Masood (Itoo), Minister for School Education said.
The situation in the Kashmir division is equally concerning, with 1,671 Master posts, 1,957 Lecturer posts, and 300 Headmaster positions still unfilled. Additionally, 58 higher secondary schools are operating without Principals.
Responding to another query, the Minister also informed that at-least 4,358 government schools were either closed or merged in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir under rationalization scheme. Of these, as many as 1,274 schools in Jammu division and 3,084 schools in Kashmir division were merged.
“The criteria adopted for closure/merger of Schools include schools functioning in same vicinity; schools with no building/rented; schools with zero and less enrollment and the surplus teachers are deployed/ rationalized as per the actual need of the area/zone/district,” the minister said.
The minister also revealed that over 3,100 deficient files for verification of degrees of teaching staff in Jammu region and 1,497 files in Kashmir division are yet to be cleared for the want of requisite documents.
“The department examined over 13,000 files out of which 8,800 files verified and recommended for one-time exemption in favour of teaching staff of School Education Department who have acquired higher qualification/degrees through distance/online mode without obtaining prior permission from the Administrative department,” she said.
She further added, “In this regard, two committee(s) have been constituted at Directorate Level(s) to verify the genuineness/equivalence of PG degrees acquired through distance/online mode during service and eligible incumbents will be considered after the final outcome of report/recommendations of the concerned committee(s)”.
A senior official of school education department, who declined to be named, said, “With thousands of teaching posts vacant, merger of schools, and administrative hurdles in recruitment, the education sector in Jammu and Kashmir faces a deepening crisis”.
“The lack of qualified teachers is significantly affecting the quality of education, leaving the future of students at stake,” the official added.
