The School Education Department Jammu and Kashmir on March 7 of 2025 launched a mega enrolment drive. The mega enrolment drive was kick started by the Director School Education Kashmir G. N. Itoo who emphasised parents to take advantage of the facilities and quality education available in Government schools.The main aim of the mega enrolment drive was to increase the enrolment of students and to reduce dropout rates in Government schools across Kashmir. It also aimed that no child is left behind due to lack of resources or access to education and to provide better quality education opportunities to children across the Kashmir valley. As per the official figure, 50000 new admissions have been registered until 20 March 2025 including new admissions, out of school children, students shifted from private schools to the Government schools. The shift from private schools to Government schools has brought great relief to parents who could not send their wards to private schools owing to high fees. There was a time when the preference of most parents was to send their wards to private schools. Now the trend has changed and time again has come when parents are sending their wards to Government schools accordingly, the enrolment of Government schools has been increasing owing to quality education and desired results by hard work and dedication of highly qualified and experienced teachers. During the recent enrolment drive, the officials from lower rung to the higher rung of the education department have actively participated in the mega enrolment drive on a mission and vision mode. The participation of top officials has been highly hailed by all the stakeholders and accordingly a series of mega enrolment drives have been started by the teachers across Kashmir. It is pertinent that during recent enrolment drive, the worthy Joint Director School Education Department Mr. Syed Shabir Ahmad, Worthy Chief Education Officer Budgam Rajiv Abrol and Worthy District Education Planning Officer Budgam Javid Ahmd Banday, Principal BHSS Beerwah Abdul Rashid Malla, Principal BHSS Magam Mr. Sheikh Zahoor and Zonal Education Beerwah visited many habitations of the district Budgam as a part of a mega enrolment drive campaign in order to inspire and boost field functionaries. The participation of higher officials boost morale and confidence of teachers and parents. The teachers of the education department have been also at the forefront during the mega enrolment drives.They conducted campaigns in villages and motivated people to enrol their wards in Government schools for their better, quality and free education. The teachers roped all the PRIs, village Education Committees, School Management Committees, senior citizens, civil society, NGOs, etc. for achieving enrolment targets set by the school education department. It is worth mentioning here that the recent mega enrolment drive yielded very good results as thousands of parents have admitted their wards in Government schools for the last one month and still continues. Hundreds of students from private schools have also sought their admissions in Government schools due to the presence of student friendly well-equipped infrastructure, highly qualified and experienced teachers, and outstanding performance of students in Board results and learning outcomes of students in a congenial and holistic learning environment. The ongoing shifting of students from low and high budget private schools to Government schools is really an appreciable step and great achievement of the school education department and it is sending a clear and green signal to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir about the quality and free education in Government schools. It has changed the negative perception among the public about the Government schools and increased public trust showcasing improved infrastructure, dedicated teaching staff and student friendly learning environment.
“The enrollment drive by the School Education Department is a commendable effort to increase the literacy rate in Jammu and Kashmir. All Government teachers must take responsibility for challenging misconceptions, misinformation and fostering open conversation about the quality education delivered in Government schools by hardworking, experienced and dedicated teachers. Let us hope and expect that misconceptions and misinformation among the unaware people will dispel and enrolment drives by teachers will continue in future for the welfare of all stakeholders.”
To boost the education sector in contemporary times and take it to new heights in view of growing competition with private schools, the School Education Department in recent years brought ample positive, constructive and innovative changes in its policies, schemes and orders as per National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 guidelines. It reflects seriousness and concern of the school Education Department towards improvement of quality education in Government schools for holistic development of students. For the last many years, The Department of School Education has been investing huge funds under various schemes particularly Samagra Shiksha for development of quality infrastructure and facilities in Government schools. Accordingly, the infrastructure of most Government schools improved very well and the facilities available are at par with top private schools of the valley particularly well-equipped libraries, laboratories’, playgrounds, ICT and Virtual Reality Labs, Smart Boards, Smart classrooms, CAL Labs, S.T.E.M. labs, craft rooms, counselling cells, happiness zones, play grounds, recreational facilities, proper accommodation etc. There are also other facilities available in Government schools that are yet to be available in private schools particularly teaching of diverse vocational courses, soil-testing labs, Atal Tinkering labs etc. the quality infrastructure, free and quality education and highly qualified and experienced teachers laced with modern teaching pedagogies are the main reasons of luring the students to Government schools. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has been now focussing on improving infrastructures of all other schools that are yet to be fully developed. The full infrastructure development in all Government schools in the very near future under various schemes will lure more parents to admit their wards in the Government schools. The mega enrolment drive of the education department is not only confined for enrolling new wards but it also emphasizes teachers to identify and enrol out of schoolchildren in Government schools. One of the most genuine challenges that Government teachers face during enrolment drives from the community members is that despite highly qualified and experienced teachers, quality free education and facilities in Government schools, why are most Government teachers still admitting their wards in private schools? The community members often think that some Government teachers have no faith in their own teaching so they admit their own wards in private schools. However, this is not the reality and the fact is that in a modern society, a parent feels low status in a society by admitting his/her ward in a Government school due to misconceptions, misinformation, fuelled by outdated beliefs, cultural factors and social stigma and compulsion. However, not all teachers are sailing in the same boat, as there are thousands of teachers who have admitted their wards proudly in Government schools owing to quality education. About 90% of top to lower officials’ in the Government sector are products from Government schools. In every recruitment results, most selections are from the Government schools underscoring quality teaching learning process in Government schools. The enrolment of Government schools will increase more in near future, as the School Education Department is plugging all infrastructure gaps, developing modern facilities, smart classrooms, initiating rationalization, providing professional development and training programs to teachers, avoiding deputations of teachers for other assignments, and filling of all the vacancies in the department. The infrastructure development and modern facilities in all Government schools would not only enhance and boost the quality education but will also lure more students to the Government schools for increasing enrolment. Honestly speaking, for the last many years, corruption has been much reduced in all the departments including the education department. The transparency, accountability, impartiality and work culture in the education department have much improved. The negative perception and tag about less work culture in Government schools has abolished and the same could be the other reasons for increasing enrolment in the Government schools. The enrollment drive by the School Education Department is a commendable effort to increase the literacy rate in Jammu and Kashmir. All Government teachers must take responsibility for challenging misconceptions, misinformation and fostering open conversation about the quality education delivered in Government schools by hardworking, experienced and dedicated teachers. Let us hope and expect that misconceptions and misinformation among the unaware people will dispel and enrolment drives by teachers will continue in future for the welfare of all stakeholders.
(The author is a teacher at Govt Boys Higher Secondary School Beerwah, Budgam. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
Mushtaq Ahmad Wani
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