* Modalities, financial implications being worked out
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Aug 25: To overcome the major problem being faced in educational institutions at far flung and difficult areas where the teachers avoid to get posted, the State Government is mulling attractive monetary incentive to those serving in such pockets.
Besides regular Government Teachers, Masters, Lecturers and Assistant Professors, Contractual Lecturers engaged on the basis of Academic Arrangement and serving in such remote areas, are being extended the proposed special incentive in the form of multiplied House Rent Allowance (HRA) or double honorarium.
Authoritative sources told the Excelsior that the Department of School Education as well as Higher Education have been working out modalities of the comprehensive proposal and financial implication in extending monetary incentives to the teachers serving in far flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
The concerned authorities are on the job for giving the proposal final shape after which it will be submitted to the State Cabinet for a formal approval and then implementation of the same, sources said and added that the entire process is likely to take around a month’s time.
Pertinent to mention that non-availability of teachers in educational institutions located in remote areas of the State is the biggest problem being faced by the Education Department. As teachers avoid to get transferred and join in remote areas, majority of educational institutions in such pockets remain without adequate strength of teaching staff thus severely affecting academics of the students studying there. There are some schools which remain closed for weeks together in absence of teaching staff. No private educational institutions in the remote areas is the another factor which aggravates the problem due to non-availability of teachers in Government run institutions there.
More HRA for posting in the city and no incentive for serving in far flung areas is one of the major reasons behind the problem. Even as the Education Department has been facing this crisis since decades, no way out was evolved till date for the reasons best known to the authorities at the helm of affairs.
According to the official sources, Minister for Education Altaf Ahmad Bukhari has told the concerned authorities to virtually reverse the existing system of extending monetary benefit in the shape of HRA to the teachers serving in city. “Instead of giving more HRA to those posted in the city, the proposal envisages extending 25 to 40 percent HRA to those serving in difficult areas, which shall be categorized on the basis of distance, terrain and topography etc,” sources explained and added that HRA in capital cities is likely to be reduced from present 30 percent to 5 percent only.
As the discussions are on for working out modalities and give the proposal a final shape as early as possible, sources said that data is being collected on the classification of difficult areas, total number of teachers required in the educational institutions there and the financial implications involved in extending monetary incentives to those posted in the identified pockets.
The Department of Higher Education has estimated requirement of around Rs 17 crore annually for extending these monetary incentives to the teachers while process of working out financial implications is on in the School Education Department, sources informed and added that in respect of Contractual Lecturers, the Government is proposing to double the honorarium for those serving in difficult areas.
When contacted, Education Minister Altaf Ahmad Bukhari confirmed that the proposal for extending monetary incentive to the teachers serving in difficult areas was under active consideration and the process was on for chalking out financial implications, which are likely to be approximately Rs 50 crores annually. “But it is worth and will be a positive attraction for those serving in difficult areas, where teachers avoid to go and variously don’t join the place of posting even if get transferred,” he added.
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