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| Staff shortage, lopsided postings hit total literacy campaign | | |
SALMAN NIZAMI
Jammu, May 8: The Jammu and Kashmir government with central support has embarked on the mission of total literacy in the state. And as part of its total literacy campaign (TLC), the government has opened hundreds of new schools under ’Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ (SSA) to make education accessible to all people in the state.
In fact, the government has moved a step further and opened educational guarantee scheme (EGS) centers in all parts of the state. “Though these schools and centres have resulted in the increase in the enrollments but the desired results are yet to be achieved,” says a senior educationist in Jammu.
“There are many reasons for it. In a good number of cases, the EGS centres or even SSA schools have enrolled students who have been taken from already exiting government schools. In fact, there is good number of examples where two schools show same set of students enrolled with them.”
The depleted staff strength is not the only worry. Most of the schools run from two or three-room buildings and have to house five classes.
A major worry, however, is the student-teacher ratio in the government schools of the state. The statistic may be encouraging with the student-teacher ratio in J&K at 30:1 as against the national average of 43:1, the government has failed to maintain this uniformly. In the urban schools, the ratio is as low as 10:1 while in the remote villages of the state the ratio is more than 100:1.
The centre-sponsored midday meal has also been introduced in the J&K schools with an aim to minimise the drop-out rates from the schools. The scheme, however, has its adverse effects in absence of proper supporting staff.
A large number of school teachers are regularly campaigning that they have to introduce the scheme at the cost of academics. “We have to keep track of the cooking also,” said Hina Anwar, a Rehbar-e-Taleem teacher at Primary School Nagam Banihal. “In absence of the proper staff especially in primary schools, we are actively involved in distribution of midday meals, which has a direct effect on our primary duty.”
This problem is not restricted to the primary or middle classes alone. In fact, the quality education is a casualty in higher secondary schools also. “There is not only the shortage of staff in the higher secondary schools of the state but also the choice-education isn’t available to the students,” said Sadaf Anayat, a class XI student. “On the one hand the higher secondary schools strictly follow the catchments area policy while on the other they can’t offer us the subjects of our choice. I had to compromise while choosing my subjects,” he said.
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