Azad Hussain
Transfer of a government employee is the part of his service, so from bureaucrats to fourth class government employees, occasionally, every body tastes this cup of tea. However it would be a surprise for you that there is a cadre of teachers in Jammu and Kashmir, counting around fifty thousand in number, who are being unnecessarily biased in the way that they are not supposed be transferred, who have been working at their first places of their respective postings from decades since their first appointment, inspite of the fact that some of them are at the verge of retirement now. They include all those teachers regularized through Rehbar-e-Taleem Scheme_ like Teacher Grade ll, Teacher grade lll, third teachers and regularised normal Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers. Though they are at par with other teacher in every respect except being debarred from the transfer right. The said teachers, share equal position and equal work at par with other teachers of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state and is an efficient and hardworking lot, who have left no stone unturned to upscale the education standards of students mostly belonging to socially and educationally backward areas. One cannot deny , that transfer of an employee is the matter of need by an employer, but there are instances when an employee needs to be transferred for some personal compulsive reasons like that of, on health grounds or on marriage grounds “needed by female employees”. It is the fact that most of the employees working at the postings of their favourite choice get disinterested by their transfers. But the reality is that the provision of transfer, when needed, is beneficial for both employees as well as for employer, however in school education department the prime beneficiaries of teacher transfers are the students. The sizable number of teachers not brought under the transfer policy can describe the demerits of prolonged stay of an employee at a same posting very well, as they have tasted this sweet poison offered to them by twenty first century policy makers. Change is certain, so is the “need to change” with time and circumstances. If at times the continuous stay of teachers would have proven good, may be it would be disadvantageous now. At the beginning teachers engaged through Rehbar-e-Taleem Scheme at far off places were asked to stay untransferred over there for the reason that teachers from urban areas would refuse to join distant posting. Those were the times when no road connectivity, no transport and no communication was available there at rural areas, turbulence was another reason that teachers would refuse to join rural areas. But that is the story of distant past, now decades have gone by, every facility is now almost available in rural areas too. Now the need is to put the past behind and think over the modern strategies in order to achieve good developments in the future.
From The Perspective Of Students Benefit: Rotation of teachers is necessary tool to overcome shortcomings in school education department, by the transfer of teachers students get a good opportunity to learn new things from new teachers. Students need variety of teaching methodologies used by different teachers and need to meet the requirement of subject specific teachers. Both these motives get wasted as in some schools you would find all science teachers where as in other school you would happen to see all social science teachers posted there from their first appointment date. Like wise in some schools there is excess of staff and some schools remain staff deficit, in this way the required teacher/ student ratio is not uniform all over. The “no transfer” rule hampers the rationalisation, of staff in schools, which is the need of hour to overcome the loopholes left if any in school education department in order to upscale the standard of students.
From Teacher’s Perspective: As you can’t expect a teacher perfect in every respect, so efficiency also varies from teacher to teacher. The more efficient and more dedicated teachers are not given chance to serve the students in other schools too, but have been kept unnecessarily stagnated at their specific postings. In this way teachers also don’t get a chance to experience new things professionally. The most sufferers of this apathetic approach towards a particular section of teachers are female staff in school education department, who has to travel dozens of kilometers to reach to their schools. Because some of them have been married to far off places, even some to other districts. This rubbish “no transfer” rule pushes them to hard wall there by creates a hindrance between them and their their family life, they are neither in a position to do justice with students nor with their families. Now the question is how many more miles they have go to get the benefit of transfer right. Many times teachers unions of Jammu and Kashmir have taken up this issue with existing time to time popular governments and concerned authorities to bring a transfer policy in favour of said cadre of teacher but one wonders as if it is a hard rock to break to get a transfer policy out of it in favour of this left out cadre of teachers, as the all successive government have only given assurances after assurances in this regard but later all assurances have fallen flat. The transfer of regularised Rehbar-e-TaleemTeachers, in addition to benefiting to students and this cadre of teachers, would also benefit other teachers who are in dire need of transfer to nearest places on their health grounds. If there is no harm or disadvantage in transferring those teachers but only advantages, then what is the fun of devoting the lifelong services of this cadre of teachers to same schools. Now the huge time has gone by the authorities need to rethink on this matter, and in order to bring a new soul to school education department, the government should go for a complete rotation of teachers, so that teachers would restart their journey of teaching as if new teachers at new postings with the new hopes. So the government should focus on this legitimate demand and should try to understand it’s gravity, as the “no transfer” rule is resulting with the sheer injustice with students, and should frame a good transfer policy in favour of those teachers who have been performing their duties at their first appointment postings from decades long time, despite the fact that many teachers among them are at the verge of retirement. [email protected]
