Dr. Rizwan Rumi Concerned about the plight of Highly Qualified Teacher Professionals

SRINAGAR — Noted Socio-Poltical activist and Executive Member, South Asian Centre for Peace, Democracy & Development (SACPDD) Dr. Rizwan Rumi expressed his anguish over plight of teacher professionals of Jammu and Kashmir.

In a memorandum to highlight the plight of young and qualified teachers, he said the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory has the highest unemployment rate in the country with 21.6 percent according to the recent official report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and it is a matter of great concern. This sudden spike in unemployment rate is the result of the misimplementation of centrally sponsored schemes such as SSA, RAMSA and state ReT scheme and unconstitutional orders/decisions taken by the previous governments.

The misimplementation of centrally sponsored schemes like SSA, RAMSA and state ReT scheme, not only increased the burden of unemployment but also violated the guidelines of NCTE, NEP 2020 & Supreme court directions regarding basic eligibility for recruitment of teachers in schools, which has a negative impact on achieving the national goals for strengthening the education system in our country.

“As per National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), National Education Policy 2020 (NEP2020) and directions of Hon’ble Supreme Court professional teaching courses like B.Ed., M.Ed. should be highly considered for appointment of teachers in School Education Department. Further the minimum eligibility for appointment of teachers must be Graduate with Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.). But unfortunately all these guidelines & directions have been disregarded, leading to failure in the achievement of National goals,” reads the memorandum.

“The syllabus in the recruitment test for teachers should be from the respective field itself, as per CTET norms. A large number of aspirants of J&K have obtained professional teaching degrees like B.Ed., M.Ed. from different Universities and teacher training colleges of J&K UT. But unfortunately there is no job policy for placement of these professionals, which creates lot of inconvenience for them and their families. Most of these professionals are at the verge of getting overage because of which anxiety, depression and other mental disorders has increased at an alarming rate in Jammu and Kashmir.”

“The decision is unconstitutional in nature as it deprives the highly qualified youth of J&K having B.Ed., M.Ed., MPhil, PhD and other degrees from participating in fresh recruitment process, which violates the Indian constitutional provision of Equality of opportunity for all (Article 16),” the memorandum said.

“The highly qualified youth of J&K having B.Ed., M.Ed., MPhil, PhD and other degrees who attained their eligibilities for teacher posts as per the guidelines of NEP 2020 & NCTE want to draw your kind attention towards the former State Administrative Council (SAC) who took a decision in 2018 in which it was decided that all ReT/SSA teachers will be regularised by converting them into Teacher Grade II & Teacher Grade III which resulted in filling all teacher vacancies available in school education department J&K,” the memorandum ends.

In connection to the aforementioned points, Dr. Rizwan appealed UT administration to revoke unconstitutional and discriminatory orders/decisions of the former administration regarding teacher recruitment.

He also requested School Education Department J&K to forward the list of fresh vacancies prevailing in department & advertise them at the earliest, so that the youth will feel a sigh of relief.

He further said we have firm faith in our constitution that justice will prevail by revoking the bar on direct recruitment for new teacher posts through a transparent recruitment by JKSSB, as per NCTE guidelines. — (KIMS)