Bijay Charak
Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 18: Education has taken a backseat in government-run educational institutions in three education zones of Jammu district as three key posts of Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) are vacant for the last two months.
Jammu district has a total of 16 zones, and three of them-- R S Pura, Bishnah and Jourian-are functioning with ZEO since July.
"Headmasters or principals of nearby schools are holding the charge of ZEOs these days", sources in the Education department told Early Times.
"As each education zone has a number of schools, the absence of ZEOs is severely affecting proper inspection and management of these institutions", sources said, adding that the posts of ZEO were lying vacant for the reasons best known to the authorities concerned.
In the absence of ZEOs, studies of students as well as the normal functioning of schools are getting adversely affected. All this is in the notice of the government but it too seems to be least bothered about these headless institutions. Minister for Education Nayeem Akhter has reiterated time and again that government schools have to perform better. "But how can they do so in the absence of adequate staff? Due to vacant posts of ZEOs smooth functioning of hundreds of Middle and Primary schools is getting affected," said sources.
"How will you run the flagship education schemes like RMSA and SSA when you do not have the officers to monitor those schemes? Why has the government failed to fill up the vacancies," asked sources, adding that in the absence of ZEO, there was no full-time supervisory authority to keep a check on the functioning of schools and attendance of teachers.
When contacted Chief Education Officer, Jammu, JK Sudan, he said that all the three ZEO posts are lying vacant due to retirement of the people. "It's not in my hand to fill up the posts. You may contact Director School Education Jammu or Commissioner Secretary," Sudan told Early Times.
The Director School Education, Jammu, Smita Sethi, didn't respond to repeated phone calls. |
