Mool Raj
I am not a think tank but simply a person who would like to press his views on the tweets of Chief Secretary Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a good news that the Jammu and Kashmir government is mulling introducing a procedure wherein the promotion of teachers, masters, lecturers, administrators and officers in the School Education Department Jammu and Kashmir shall be done via examination base. I think that if this proposal is once introduced, the procedure will change the decade-long scheme of promotions in the education department, which is entirely based on seniority of service and minimum acquired qualifications. There is immense need of magor change in education sector since the old age plane of promotion in education department not only pleased Govt official and the Education Department with things that have taken place with promotions of teachers, administrators, and officers in the department. And the kind of result is shown by teachers in Jammu and Kashmir. I think and feels that scores of teachers, masters, lecturers and officials are not giving a positive result, impacting the education level in Jammu and Kashmir. Keeping in views all facts and figures I would like to suggest the Govt of Jammu and Kashmir that there should be examination-based promotions in Education Department. There are several factors for exam based promotion in the department of education of Jammu and Kashmir like
1-In order to streamline the education department and change the old tradition of promoting teachers merely on the seniority of service which is time consuming.
2-Another factors is the other is that several Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers (appointed under RTE Act) were 12th pass when they were inducted into the teaching profession. But, over time, they were promoted to higher positions, even though their performance remains below par which in turn I think affected education in Jammu and Kashmir. Same goes with other teachers, master, lecturers, who no doubt are well qualified. But they have failed to set a benchmark in their teaching career, which the people is unwilling to tolerate at any level.
.Last but not least if the government is serious about the quality of education in schools, it is inevitable to reform the present promotion mechanism in the department. In the absence of this reform, every step whatsoever taken by the government will yield no results as is evident from the present scenario shown by surveys and data, already available in the public domain. I think that this mechanism can be akin to the departmental examination system for every promotion as being practiced by the central school systems like Kendriya/Navodya Vidhyalas, most of the educationally forward states/UTs like Kerala, Mizoram, Chandigarh, Haryana, etc. The scheme for such a system can be copied from any of the above systems/states with local modifications, wherever required. This scheme of departmental examination-based promotions for the elevation of teachers, masters, lecturers, administrators, and officers in our department will go a long way in promoting talent, quality, and efficiency of human resources in our department.
I also sometimes think that the present scheme of promotions, entirely based on seniority of service and minimum acquired qualifications, has not only degraded the quality of a teaching-learning process in our schools, but it has also downgraded the morale of competent and capable teachers to the bottom.
I think that there should some sort of pattern for departmental examination, one of which includes that there need to be five compulsory papers for the examination, which include General English and Aptitude: (Matric standard). ii. General awareness/GK/Gen Science: (Matric Standard). iii. Child psychology/Education system: (B Ed Standard) iv. Teaching techniques and pedagogy: (B Ed standard) and v. School management and Administration. Depending upon the nature of the post, the sixth subject must be optional in nature and includes the specialties required for such duties.
1-Promotion to the master post shall require an optional subject of one’s choice like Maths/English/Urdu/SST/Gen Science/Kashmiri. The standard must be of graduate level.
2-Promotion to lecturer shall require optional subject at PG level with PG standard. For example, English for Lecturer in English.
3- Promotion to administrative post like Headmaster, Principal, ZEO and above shall require to pass an additional optional subject that comprises of Service rules and Financial code CSR and others.
I hope that our UT Government should apply and implement above suggestions that will bring sea change in education department so that intelligent,effecient teacher and officers should come forward in education department like IAS and KAS officer and such exam should be conducted by JKPSC.
(The author is Environmental Science Lecturer from Doda).
