Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Nov 7: Education Minister Sakeena Itoo has said that some government schools in Jammu and Kashmir are either reeling under dearth of teaching faculty or are having surplus staff.
In order to streamline the disproportionate Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR), the minister has sought details of students enrolled and teaching staff posted in government schools of Jammu and Kashmir.
In a review meeting of the School Education Department, Sakina has said, “It has come to my notice that in some schools there is dearth of teachers Viz a Viz number of students whereas in some schools there is excess number of teachers Viz a Viz number of students.”
In the meeting, the Director of School Education of both Jammu and Kashmir regions was directed to furnish the school-wise (Primary, Middle, High and Higher Secondary) and district-wise list giving details of students enrolled and teaching staff posted.
Pertinently, it was reported that in Jammu and Kashmir nearly 4400 government run schools have been closed owing to ‘zero or extremely low’ enrolment of students.
The official documents revealed that there were a total of 23,117 government run schools in Jammu and Kashmir out of which 4394 have been deleted from the UDISE data.
The official figures further reveal that the primary schools category of government schools was hit badly wherein the count of overall public schools in Jammu and Kashmir reduced by nearly 30 percent.
According to the official figures a total of 12,977 government primary schools were functioning in Jammu and Kashmir. However, after the merger, only 8966 primary schools are functional.
Overall, Jammu and Kashmir used to have 28,805 government and private schools. However, as per the official figures, the count has reduced to 24,279 schools.
Previously, the School Education Department had said that it had identified more than 1200 such government schools that were having low enrolment of students.
It had said that such schools would likely be merged in accordance to the catchment and feasibility of the students.
In April-2022, School Education Department had said that it was all set to merge 720 government-run-schools of Jammu and Kashmir having an inadequate student enrolment.
