Srinagar, Nov 4: The School Education Department (SED) seems to have got stuck in the detachment of teachers manning the non-teaching assignments in various zonal and district level offices of the department.
The teachers are either working as data entry operators or doing other clerical jobs at zonal education offices or in the offices of chief education officers. In a fresh official communication, the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) has once again asked the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) and Zonal Education Officers (ZEOs) to relieve the teachers from their respective offices noting that various teachers were retained in offices in violation of the government orders.
“There are clear cut orders from the administrative department not to utilise the services of teaching personnel in the offices to man the clerical job but surprisingly you have still retained a number of teachers in the offices in violation of government orders,” reads the official communique address to all CEOs of Kashmir division.
The CEOS and ZEOs have been “once again” asked to take appropriate action in the matter and “compliance be reported to the Directorate forth with.”
Notably, this newspaper has carried a series of stories on unnecessary attachment of teachers in offices for years together due to which the schools face dearth of teaching staff which tells upon the academic performance of the students. During the previous years, the DSEK has issued repeated circulars to the CEOs and ZEOs directing them to relieve all the teaching staff from their offices.However, all the circular instructions issued for detachment of teachers in offices have witnessed poor implementation on ground.
The CEOs and ZEOs delay in relieving the teaching staff from offices under the pretext of one or the other reason till the issues goes out of focus of the department. “The CEOs give an excuse that these teachers are computer-knowing and their removal from offices will affect the work culture. The excuse prompts authorities to be lenient in getting the orders implemented,” said a teacher from Baramulla wishing not to be named. However, all these teachers, posted in CEO or ZEO offices for years, are either relatives of bureaucrats or have patronage of higher officials. “These teachers prefer to be in offices than teaching students in schools,” he said.
