Experiences of online teaching during last three consecutive years of pandemic have thrown up new challenges to the teachers as students in Jammu & Kashmir like their counterparts of several states and union territories of the country have started preparing even for the prestigious NEET examination through online classes. Preparing for examinations through online mode is a new experience for the students and a new challenge for teachers conducting coaching for NEET class across the country. So a fast changing educational scenario is fast changing the classroom environment in schools, colleges and universities. It is too early to pass on any judgment over the future of online classes and offline mode of teaching in classes. Amid unprecedented changes in the classroom environment the teachers find themselves at the centre of huge challenges due to huge inequality in infrastructural facilities in private and government schools.. Though Government is trying it’s best to shift the trends of education through bigger involvement of students in sports and extra-curricular activities but finally sports and extracurricular activities alone won’t change the dimensions of enrolments in government and private schools . Keeping in view the fact that student spend most of the time from dawn to dusk with teachers and very less time with the parents the changes in the classroom teaching can probably change the dimensions of competition between government and private schools. While punctuality of both the students and teachers has to be maintained for the purposes of increasing the time spans of student-teaching interactions in the classrooms, the teachers and students of private schools maintain punctuality but punctuality of teachers and students is not fully maintained in government schools across Jammu and Kashmir.
For increasing enrolments in government schools the upgradation of the infrastructural facilities like completion of incomplete school buildings with portable water and toilet facilities, libraries, laboratories, playing fields and introduction of white marker boards in fixed time lines is the only way out . Government schools if equipped with such facilities won’t only show unprecedented rise in enrolments but will also throw up a strong challenge to even leading missionary private schools both in Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. Doing so will consequently raised the status of teachers and standards of teaching in government schools.
While flaws in the transfer policy of school education and higher education departments is being blamed for poor record of punctuality of teachers in government schools, the non availability of transport facilities in government schools is stated to be cause of a bad record of punctuality shown by students. Since breaks in the punctuality of both the teachers and the students is the cause of lesser student-teacher interaction in government schools, even naives can understand that enrolment in government schools can’t be increased only by enrolment drives but enrolment in government schools can be largely increased by introducing transport facilities and posting teachers in their localities also. For increasing enrolments in government schools the upgradation of the infrastructural facilities like completion of incomplete school buildings with portable water and toilet facilities, libraries, laboratories, playing fields and introduction of white marker boards in fixed time lines is the only way out . Government schools if equipped with such facilities won’t only show unprecedented rise in enrolments but will also throw up a strong challenge to even leading missionary private schools both in Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. Doing so will consequently raised the status of teachers and standards of teaching in government schools.
