Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 23: Government today said the order for upgradation of 800 schools, issued by the previous dispensation at the fag end of its tenure, has been kept in abeyance and is being re-examined.
“The School Education Department issued a Government order in October, 2014 for upgrading 800 schools but the same was issued without prior concurrence of the Planning and Finance department, a condition imposed by the cabinet.
“Apart from this, a number of factual inaccuracies and infirmities have been noticed and therefore, the entire issue is being re-examined in respect of feasibility vis-a-vis enrollment, distance and infrastructure available,” Education Minister Naeem Akhtar said in a written reply in the Assembly.
As per the order, 468 middle schools and 332 high schools were to be upgraded to the next higher level in the state.
“None of these schools were made functional because the order was issued in disregard to the conditional approval of the cabinet,” the Minister said.
Akhtar was responding to a question raised by National Conference member Javed Ahmad Rana who had sought details from the Government about the status of the implementation of the order for upgradation of 800 schools.
However, the Minister said 150 schools have been upgraded to the next higher levels under centrally sponsored Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in the past two years.
These are 110 middle schools to high schools and 40 primary schools to upper primary. Akhtar said there was no target set for upgradation of schools for the current financial year.
The Minister said over 12,400 vacancies are there in the Education department and efforts are on to fill up these vacancies.
“There are 3,878 vacancies of teachers, 3,326 of masters, 3,026 of Rehbar-e-Taleem (teaching volunteers), 2,042 lecturers, 156 headmasters, 23 Zonal Education Officers and 17 principals,” Akhtar said.
He said all posts of lecturers have been referred to the Public Service commission for making selection, while the vacancies of teachers falling under direct recruitment quota would be referred to the recruiting agencies once recruitment rules, which are under process for amendment, are finalised.
Quoting Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) data, the Minister said the teacher-pupil ratio in the School Education Department is 1:13.04 at primary level, 1:9.34 (upper primary) and 1:14.94 (secondary level).
On the delay in disbursement of salary of teaching staff under RMSA and SSA, the Minister said delay in release of funds to the department in the year 2014-15 resulted in huge salary arrears of Rs 600 crore being carried over to 2015-16.
The Centre agreed to release these salary arrears but there was still a shortfall in release of central share 2015-16 amount to Rs 3.84 crore under teacher salary despite the state having provided full matching state share, he said.
Under RMSA, the delay in disbursement of salary is due to non-receipt of recurring grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, he said, adding the salary has been cleared up to April 2016 under RMSA.
The Minister said the Centre had sanctioned 19 new model schools in the state during 2009-10 but no steps were taken by the state up to 2014-15 for establishment of these model schools.
The scheme was withdrawn by the Centre in April 2015 and the State was asked to refund the Centre’s share already provided, he said.
Akhtar said the State, on its own, as a step towards quality education launched the Chief Minister’s Model School Scheme during 2015-16 for overall development of Government schools.
A total of 144 high and higher secondary schools across the state were selected under the scheme, he said, adding while 73 such schools were selected from Kashmir region, 67 were selected from Jammu region.
Four such schools were selected from Ladakh region, the Minister said.
He said the highest number of 16 schools were selected from Jammu district, followed by 12 each from Anantnag and Baramulla and 10 from Kupwara.
Under SSA, the Minister said 99 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (residential schools) have been sanctioned, he said, adding all but two – one in Kharu in Leh and another in Kishtwar – are functioning smoothly.
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