The School Education Department is having discussions to close the government schools that have low enrollment of students as there is a lack of teaching staff.
The Department can close schools with lower enrollment and provide transport to these schools students to nearby educational institution. B K Singh, Administrative Secretary of the School Education Departmentc said that they are already transferring teachers and this transfer process will be over by March 25.
Issue of lack of teachers in schools will be addressed then. The department will rationalise teaching staff in schools to streamline the availability of teachers. Singh said that they will ensure that every primary school has at least two teachers and each middle school have four teachers.
Administrative Secretory said that they will shift students of schools with low enrolment to the nearby schools to continue their studies. The government will use their own transport to carry these students. It is not possible for the government to run the schools with low enrollment as separate institutions as it will not be good for the department.
He said that they will employ a transport facility for these students. It will cost government around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per month which the department can be handle. Offline classes for students belonging to class 6th to 12th have already started but there has been a problem of lack of teaching in schools of rural areas.
B K Singh said that they are working to streamline the entire system. J&K administration clubbed 2406 schools in 2015. It included 1834 schools that were using rented accommodations and 572 government-owned schools in Kashmir with a low enrollment of students.
1490 schools were also clubbed in the Jammu region as well to streamline the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) in the government schools. Earlier, 124 schools were found with zero student population and some other schools had less than 10 students. This merger of around 2400 schools freed 3553 teachers which were employed in other schools. Unfortunately, department couldn’t utilise services of these teachers at an optimum level and rural area schools couldn’t have sufficient staff.
