JAMMU: The State government will not deploy teachers for election duties in bypolls to the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Kashmir and the forthcoming local bodies polls in the state.
“Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has instructed that the state government will not deploy teachers as booth level officers during elections in Kashmir Valley,” Education Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari said here on Friday.
He said the instruction has been passed on to Divisional Commissioners in both Kashmir and Jammu regions.
“Teachers will have only one job to do. It will 100 per cent academic duty,” the education minister said.
Bukhari, who took over as the state education minister earlier this month, has taken several major decisions aimed at reforming and restructuring the department. “In municipal and panchayat polls, which will follow, the system of using teachers and education fraternity for election duties will end,” he said.
Till the last elections in the state, most of the poll staff were drawn from the education department.
“The education department has decided to end the practice of using teachers for various purposes. The Chief Minister has been gracious to accept this proposal by the department,” he said.
The education department will also not allow teachers to be used as supervisors of school building constructions or for accounting jobs, Bukhari said. The education department is setting up an engineering wing construction of school buildings and other facilities. The department will also hire accountants and financial consultants to prepare accounts of schools and colleges, he said.
“The aim of such moves is to restore the honour and dignity of teachers whose only task is teaching,” the minister said, adding pending salaries of the Rehbar-e-Taleem and other teachers will be cleared by April 30. Minister of State for Education, Priya Sethi was also present on the occasion. Bukhari said this would also provide teachers enough time to compensate the loss of studies due to certain situations – like the one Kashmir was embroiled in last year. “I am of the opinion that teachers are the custodian of our future. Need of the hour is to restore their dignity and honor by relieving them of all duties other than academic activities,” the Minister asserted. He said the objective of these reforms is to reinforce a sense of accountability and ownership of the schools among the teaching fraternity.
“The involvement of teachers with construction works under different educational schemes is a continuous drain on their time and energies. The department is examining the proposal for creation of a separate works division,” he said and added; “We are also exploring the possibility to execute the Mid Day Meal Scheme through NGOs.” He said schools would also be provided some alternative to deal with accountancy and relieve the teachers engaged with this task. He said focused attention would be laid on orientation training held from time to time for teachers and remedial teaching for the elementary students who may get detained with the introduction of combined examination for class 5 and class 8 as the government has done away with the ‘No detention policy’.
He said government, particularly Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti is very particular about better amenities including sanitation, toilets, safe drinking water and power in government schools. Bukhari said strict instructions have been issued to complete all required works in this regard at the earliest.
Asserting that the government has full faith in the ability of the teachers, the Minister said that the screening test would be restricted to only 1 percent of the ReTs, who have secured degrees from study centers. “Out of 41000 ReTs only around 500 ReTs have to undergo screening test as directed by the High Court. The test will be based on eighth standard syllabus and they will be given two chances,” he said. The Minister further said that implementation of SRO-66 regarding assessment of the quality of degrees got through distance mode for promotions in education department has been kept in abeyance. He said this order was passed pursuant to cabinet decision of 2012 which required every department to notify the mechanism. The Minister also assured the release of pending salaries under SSA, describing it as a chronic problem confronting the department and a genuine grievance of teaching community.
He said the problem faced by the teachers working under SSA due to non-payment of salaries is a serious concern for one and all. “Since 2015-16, the State succeeded in convincing the GoI for 90:10 pattern in SSA funding. This year, due to substantial cut in the allocations of the MHRD, the Ministry could not provide adequate funds to JK.”
The minister informed that against the approved Central allocation of Rs 1750 crore during the current fiscal (2016-17), an amount of Rs 1024.00 crore has been released by the GoI. He said the Central Govt has already been requested to release the balance amount of Rs 726.00 crore to meet out the requirement of pending salary of the teachers since September 2016.
“I accompanied by Principal Secretary, School Education Shaleen Kabra had a detailed interaction with the Union HRD Minister at New Delhi recently regarding the release of pending salary SSA teachers. The Union Minister agreed in principle to release the balance of Rs 726.00 crore out of which some funds are expected to be released shortly.”
The minister also touched upon a range of other issues related to consolidation of infrastructure, issues and related to private schools including free regulation, Transfer policy, better sanitation in government schools with provision for safe drinking water, power supply and other related facilities, transfer policy, pay anomaly of masters regularization incharge officers of education department including Joint Directors and CEOs. He said confirmation and pay anomaly of masters and regularization of in-charge officers of Education Department are very genuine and justified demands which will be redressed on priority.
He said government is working on the modalities to resolve the demand of ReTs transfers and other issues. He said some funds out of the Savings from Capital Budget will be utilized for meeting out the requirement of providing toilet facilities preferably in girls’ schools across the state.
‘Govt to evolve a fool proof mechanism’
JAMMU: A day after the School Education department kept its own government order regarding degrees obtained through distance mode in abeyance, the Minister for Education Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari clarified the government is committed to evolve a fool proof mechanism to ensure genuine concerns raised by various stake holders are addressed.
Addressing his maiden press conference here in the civil secretariat complex Education Minister said there were certain reservations in the previous order and now we will try our best to address the concerns raised by the teaching faculty. He repeatedly clarified that the intent of the State Government was to accommodate the members of the teaching community and also comply with the instructions of the State Cabinet.
He said soon we will come up with the mechanism to sort out the issue. When quizzed repeatedly why government was indulging in regular flip flop over the sensitive issue, Education Minister defended the decision of the government and claimed as Minister incharge of the education department, “I have no hesitation in admitting that if some wrong was committed in the past there is no hesitation in rectifying the same by way of fresh order.”