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School Education In J & K Needs Urgent Reform

By Masood Ali Mir

17 September, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Education is the never ending process for every human being be it a small kid or a reputed academician, doctor, professor, engineer, parliamentarian, jurist, journalist , policeman, and a civil society member. As it is the creation of sound mind in a sound body to face the difficulties and the hard times in one’s life in particular and society at large. In the realm of drawing out of the best of Almighty’s supreme creation it helps us to learn and share the experiences of life, its successes and failures and the facilitation of the larger good .

It is a well established fact that modern education is a bit different from its traditional sense. In its original sense it was mostly related to the inculcation and creation of good values, principles, morals and ethics hence was a bit more religious, but in modern sense material aspect of society too has been added to it. It is been now designed more on materialistic lines than that of ethical and moral lines, hence the pupil too are stressed accordingly on market oriented lines which resulted in a continuous decline in the moral and ethical values of the students and the society at the same level.

Our state Jammu and Kashmir has not been much fortunate in the past to have a good care of our education sector and that is why this crucial sector is in crises today. The politics, politicians and the policy makers of the past have remained indifferent to this sector. Although being a huge sector , it has been more an employment generation sector than that of quality and delivery of the best. The portfolio of the education used to be assigned to the low profile, little experienced and less educated ministers in the past. High profile and experienced educated legislatures were always lobbying for the R & B, Agriculture, tourism, finance etc than that of education for the reasons better known to everyone. This sector used to have two ministers one for the school education and the other for the higher education.

The current dispensation seems very much eager and sincere to this crucial sector. It has assigned the full portfolio of human resource to one of its key member who is very much educated and experienced. He does has a vast experience in bureaucracy and knows the nitty- gritty of the working of the departments in Jammu and Kashmir. The minister looks serious to his job and in this regard he has already sounded the red alert. He is very much present in every nook and corner of the department be it primary school classroom , smart class of the college, university campus or the residence of the tenth class toppers. He has declared himself as the” Headmaster” rather than the minister. He has conducted workshops for the quality education and even is utilizing the services of the reputed academicians in order to re-invent the glory of the education sector in Jammu and Kashmir. These are definitely the good signs for the future of not only the students but for the whole community. The minister should be supported in this regard in his mission without any prejudice by all those who are the real well wishers of people


In order to have better results and to be purely and perfectly authentic to its purpose for which it has been created, there is a dear need of attention and reforms in certain areas of school education department if not the whole reformation and restructuring. To be up to the expectations of students, teachers, parents and the society of 21st century, the department has to re- adjust itself otherwise it will become irrelevant and obsolete. To be relevant it needs the immediate reforms in certain areas like.

1. Infrastructure Development: The education sector in Jammu and Kashmir too has been the victim of the conflict. Numberless school buildings have been burnt down. Almost 80% of the infrastructure got destroyed. The government was yet to re- build the destroyed infrastructure, the SSA ( Serva Shiksha Abiyan) scheme was launched. The scheme undoubtly provided the much needed opportunities to a large section of the society for getting education and the fulfillment of their fundamental right ( Right to Education) but at the same time the government remained less focused on the infrastructure needs and more on the job and recruitment benefits. Numberless new schools were opened without following the proper procedure hence created an infrastructure vacuum in the department.

Now if the government is serious to correct the system for its betterment the first priority is definitely the development of the infrastructure . Before going for new openings there is a need for the development of infrastructure of the existing ones. Buildings, libraries, laboratories, furniture, toilets etc are lacking in most of the schools , these are the essential elements of the education and without these we can never aspire for good results.

2. De-politicization of the education department: At present the education department is the most politicized department in our state. Every bit of politics is involved in this department. The main stake holders that is teachers , clearcks, officers and even the school management committee members are more involved in politics than to enhance the work culture and environment of the classroom. The politician too have used this noble sector more for personal and party gains than that of community development. The adjustments, transfers, attachments etc are purely carried out on political lines.

The department needs a full de-politicization and should be refined purely on non-political lines. The government should fix a permanent policy for adjustments, transfers, attachments, promotions and other service rules and benefits for the officials and officers of this departments so that the involvement of politics in this department may be eradicated.

3. Academic and Activity Calendar: it is June and still there is no official decision about the academic session of 2015. The students and teachers are yet to know whether the exams will be conducted in November- December 2015 or March -April 2016. This uncertainty has always created a dilemma and lethargy in the minds of all the concerned actors of this department. There should be a fixed calendar for the academic as well as the co-curricular activities in our state. The government should fix a strict calendar indicating the fixed dates for the admission, class work, number of lecturers, submission of exam forms, exam date sheet, result dates etc. Besides this we should have a fixed co-curricular activity calendar depicting the full circle of activities which may be compulsory in nature .

4.Regulating Authority for Private Sector: Nobody can deny the increasing role and influence of the private sector in the education department. The private schools are making their foot prints more and more visible day by day. But at the same time somewhere there is also the exploitation carried out by the same schools. The students, teachers and the parents are being exploited on different grounds and the private schools are becoming more business ventures than that of centers of upliftment of society.

The government should have a regulating authority for this private sector. The authority should work under a strict constitution and be accountable for its actions and decisions. Its members should be appointed purely on merit. The authority should have a full control over the functioning and working of all the private schools of state of every nature. Its prime responsibility should be the appointment of teachers , their pay fixation, service prospects, and the fee structure of the students as per the merit and services provided.

5. Educational Board: The department of education is in dear need of an educational board on the permanent basis in our state. The board should be four tier that is tehsil level, district level, division level and at the top state level. It should have academicians, parliamentarians, jurists, economists, doctors etc, as its members so that to have different shades of opinion. The board should be prime responsible for the planning, implementing and executing the new policies and schemes in the department. It should have a pivotal role in the framing of syllabus.

6. Single Training Centre: The education department of our state needs a single training centre on CCRT ( Centre for Cultural Resources and Trainings- New Delhi, Udaipur or Hyderabad) lines for the capacity building and orientation courses of the teachers. The existing S.I.Es and D.I.E.Ts of the department have failed in delivering the goods and have lost their relevance. They have become just talking societies for those who are not willing to deliver the goods in the classrooms. The single training centre should have the resourceful faculty and enough resources to hire the services of the academicians from within and outside the state . it should have a state of art library, laboratory and all the relevant things necessary for the capacity building and orientation of the teachers. It should be mandatory for every official and officer of the department to get orientation in his/her field of work after every fixed term in order to
give better results.

7. Society Involvement in the Educational Institutions: Society involvement too is the need of hour. But the involvement should not be such as we have at present of unlettered panchs, namberdars, auquf committees etc, it should have the involvement of those people who can really give something to the department. In this regard the government should frame such a policy by which it will become mandatory for certain relevant sections of the society to be active the affairs of the educational institutions.

Let us work for better education let us work for the upliftment of our society so that we may lead to education, employment and empowerment in true sense .

(Masood Ali Mir teaches at GHSS (Boys) Bijbehara and can be mailed at [email protected])




 

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