SRINAGAR: Aiming to improve the education standards in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has taken a number of significant reformative initiatives.
As per an SRO issued by the Education Department, the minimum qualification for the direct recruitment of teachers has been revised from existing 10+2 to graduation, thereby bringing criteria of direct recruitment at par with the NCTE, which had set graduation as minimum qualification for teachers in 2011. The amendment is also in line with the objective to attract the best available talent to improve the quality of education being imparted in the Government schools. The amendment in the recruitment rules was initiated after analyzing the data of candidates selected as teachers by the Services Selection Board during the past four years which indicates that only a meager three per cent undergraduate candidates got selected.
In another significant decision, the Government has decided to get the untrained teachers trained through IGNOU/NIOS in B.Ed/D.EL.Ed Courses for which an agreement has been put in place. The number of such untrained teachers is over 22,000 across the State.
Similarly, the Government has also initiated a special programme for upgradation of knowledge for the teachers through e-learning module and other innovative learning techniques to equip the manpower with latest technology. In the first instance, 84,000 teachers will be covered under knowledge upgradation and 35,000 to be covered under e-learning module. The objective of such reforms is to improve the overall education standard in Jammu and Kashmir and to keep pace with the world-wide emerging education scenario.