Any transfer or horizontal moment of an employee is the part of service. For the School Education Department, the transfer of officials always remains a matter of concern. This esteemed Department has often been in the news for unfavorable actions- undue favoritism, nepotism, and corruption in the transfer process. To bring transparency into the entire system, the department has developed the web portal and initiated the process through the digital mode to ensurethe least human involvement. Last year, the department gave school choices for officials whereby they were asked to opt their choice as per their convenience. Teacher community felt sigh of relief by this new mode of transfer policy. The list was framed and circulated but it remained in abeyance for quite some time and finally the transferlist was not implemented because of unknown reasons. This time the department has reinitiated the process with a few changes. This time the department has categorized the entire district into zones viz Zone I, II, III, IV, and V. and they said officials have been directed to opt their choices with the conditions laid down in the circular. If we take a thorough review of this process, there is apprehension that it will have the same result as the earlier processes because the number of schools falling within the particular Zone doesn’t match with the other Zone as per its proportion. There is no mention for schools on the portal. Teachers are in deep dilemma. There are teachers whose original post falls in Zone-I but under the rationalization process, their services are being utilized in Zone–III, IV, and V. There is no relief or mention of such teachers. The academic session is about to start, and teachers, Students are in deep chaos and confusion. School authorities are waiting to give final shape to the school time. There is scope for improvement for any process so as this transfer process. Therefore, I am here tosubmit a few of my suggestions regarding the same.
Decentralization of Power: The success of any policy is directly linked with the process of its execution. If the policy is executed in a better way, it will certainly yield the best results. Department of school education is one of the biggest departments and can’t be controlled single handily by the Directorate Office. There is a need to share the responsibilities among the executive officers as per the already established hierarchy. In this regard, decentralization of power can be the key to executing any transfer policy. This decentralization process not only improves accountability but also bring efficiency in the utilization of human resource and funds sanctioned in favor of schools.
Availability of School Choices: One of the purposes of this digital mode of transfer is that our teacher community should not suffer; it must be in the interest of administration as well as in the interest of teacher community. Therefore, the provision of school choice must be incorporated on the portal.
Sanction the Posts against the Zone/District: in order to avoid overlapping the number of available posts in any particular school. It is better to sanction the posts against thealready established educational zone not against any particular school. Similarly, Master grade teacher posts should be sanctioned against the District not against any particular School. There are Middle schools in every district that were upgraded under SSA Scheme but most of those schools are without Headmasters/Master grade teachers so there is a need to create more Master grade posts from such schools.
Delegate More powers to CEOs, and ZEOs: Let the Chief Education and Zonal Education Officer be given full authority to utilize the human resources within the district or zone where and when required without any external meddling.
Bring all Teachers under the Ambit of the Transfer Policy: For the smooth functioning of the schools, it will be a favorable step if all the teachers including ERETs, and grades 2nd and grade-2nd, and 3rd be taken under the ambit of the transfer policy. This initiative will solve the problem of the Disproportionate Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) which has become the most challenging problem in the school education department right now. Let us hope for the best. Any scheme or policy document can be amended in the interest of the larger interest of the public or social service. Teacher community support every move initiated by the department to bring positive changes in the system.
(The author is a teacher by profession. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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