There is devastating impact on education of children of government schools of Kashmir due to staff shortage and lack of teachers. To an utter shock, some of these government run schools are running even without headmaster.
Moreover, in the crowded classrooms students are not able to get a quality education which they are entitled to. Neither the infrastructure of such schools are getting improved nor the accommodation to the students. The condition of education system can very well be imagined with the number of teachers over students as there many schools having single teacher.
As per Greater Kashmir, in Bandipora district, Gurez education zone is completely neglected as in seven higher secondary schools in this zone, five higher secondary schools there is no principal.
A school teacher said that no facilities are being provided in these schools and many schools are running headless. Teacher further added that lack of promotions is the cause for headless schools and large number of vacant posts.
Another teacher informed that across the Gurez education zone there is huge pile of vacant posts creating immense difficulties in running these schools and adversely impacting the education given to students.
An official said that many teachers who get posted by the department have managed to get transfers to other areas such as Bandipora or Srinagar district.
Similar is the condition of Upper Primary School (UPS) Gujjarnar in Mawar zone of Kupwara district in which the school has a student population of around 120 students in nine classes from Kindergarten to class 8th having crowded classrooms. Education zone Chrari Shareef is another victim of official apathy in which schools are headless for years together.
An official said that in Budgam district around 10 posts of ZEOs are lying vacant and education zone Chrari Sharief around seven high schools are without Headmasters from the last two years.
Several promises made by the education department and government seem to be vanished in air with the condition of education system. The tall claims of School Education Department about making smart classrooms seem to have gone out of the window.
Meanwhile, recently SED framed various teams for holding inspections of the government schools to monitor teaching-learning methodologies besides assessing the infrastructure available for the children in the institutions. This initiative is under process and hope the reality of government schools is depicted.
