Srinagar: Advisor to Governor, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Monday asked the School Education Department to ensure symmetric pupil-teacher ratio across all the schools of the State. He also instructed that all the teaching staff deployed for non-teaching purposes in offices should be reverted back to their original teaching duties.
The Advisor made these remarks at a meeting convened to discuss the issues related to rationalisation of teaching staff in schools.
Commissioner Secretary, School Education, Sarita Chauhan, Director School Education Kashmir, Mohammad Younis Malik, Director School Education Jammu, Anuradha Gupta and all the Chief Education Officers attended the meeting.
The meeting was informed that there is no dearth of teachers in the State and only the pupil-teacher ratio in certain schools is higher than the required norm. Both the Directors informed that the process of rationalisation of staff has already been initiated and it will get shortly redressed to a larger extent.
Advisor Ganai enquired from the officers the current position of vacancies in each category of teaching staff across different districts of the State. He was informed that the vacancies of Principals, Headmasters and Masters shall be filled soon. He was briefed that with the joining of newly recruited teachers and inclusion of G-II teachers the scarcity of teachers has been overcome by a great measure.
During the meeting, the Advisor emphasised on efficient utilization of Capex Budget meant for the augmentation of infrastructure in the schools. He advised the officers that regular assessment of progress should be taken in association with the executing agencies and bottlenecks be cleared forthwith. He stressed for making devoted efforts for making provision of additional classrooms, washrooms and boundary walls for schools wherever required.
He also underscored the need for dovetailing material and human resources effectively. He directed for taking innovate measures for distribution of teaching staff as per the requirements in each school.
On the occasion, Commissioner Secretary School Education emphasised upon the officers to carry out regular field visits to schools so that the levels of monitoring and control get enhanced. She said CEOs and ZEOs should specify few days of week for such activities and also maintain tour diaries. She said such steps would greatly enhance the overall efficiency and output in the schools.
