Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 18: The monthly meeting of the District Udhampur unit of All J&K Plus 2 Lecturers’ Forum was held here today under the chairmanship of District President, Ashok Sharma.
Deliberating in the meeting, the members expressed concern over a large number of vacancies of teaching and non -teaching staff existing in the School Education Department, especially in the newly upgraded High and Higher Secondary schools, falling in the winter zone, where the academic session is at its peak. They demanded that these vacancies be filled up by adjusting the newly promoted Masters/teachers as Incharge Lecturers. They also demanded Charge Allowance in favour of the Promotee Lecturers as was admissible in the past.
The meet demanded that the process of transfers of all cadres be completed before the end of August this year so that the academic activities of the students don’t suffer. The meet also resented clash between the calendar of activities issued by the Directorate and other authorities including the District administration, which affects the academic activities adversely. The member stressed that such activities should be reduced to a reasonable number so that focus is laid on the academics.
The meet also demanded regularisation of all the officers and lecturers serving in the Incharge capacity in the Department and placement of lecturers as Sr Lecturers, which has not been done since 2013. The meet also pleaded for ACP in favour of the Plus 2 Cadre.
Stating that the Biometric Attendance System (BAS) be strengthened to check irregularity and absentism in the schools, the members, however, said that the orders asking the Heads of the Schools to send ‘selfies’ be avoided as it violates the dignity and privacy of the staff, especially the female employees. They said that the School Education Department has a well established mechanism of ensuring the regularity and punctuality of the staff as the attendance is daily submitted to the offices of the ZEOs and the CEO concerned, besides to the Deputy Commissioner concerned. “The Department has also constituted its own Monitoring and Mentoring teams to check irregualrity in the schools. As such, issuance of orders/circulars asking the Heads of the schools, especially where BAS is in vogue, is tantamount to harassing them on one pretext or the other,” the members said and demanded ban on all such orders in future.