Govt start process to take action against ‘deadwood’ in edu deptt

In the backdrop of surging dropout rate across the Union Territory, which is even higher than the national average, the Jammu and Kashmir government has started exercise to take action against ‘deadwood’ or non-performing employees in education department.

“Despite having around a 1:10 Teacher student ratio, the government-run institutions have witnessed lower outcomes and large drop out,” an official told.

He informed citing recent data of Union Ministry of Education that the 16.7 percent of students have dropout at secondary stage during 2019 to 20 in Jammu and Kashmir, which is higher than the national dropout rate in the secondary stage.

“At primary level i.e. class 1 to 5, dropout rate is 3.9 percent; at upper primary level (6-8 class) dropout rate is 3.2 percent, he added.

The Ministry of Education informed that dropout rates of girl students in the secondary and elementary education levels have jumped to 16.6 and 3.7 percent in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2019 to 2020.

Concerned about the school dropout rate in schools, especially in government-run institutions, the Union Territory administration has decided to hold teachers responsible for any student leaving education.

Director School Education, Ravi Shanker, when contacted informed The News Now that the exercise in identifying the deadwood has been in progress in JK UT.

However, taking it on serious note, Biswajit Kumar Singh, IFS , Principal Secretary to Government School Education Department Jammu & Kashmir has directed Director Education Kashmir to furnish the list of its teaching and non-teaching employees that have turned to be the ‘deadwood’ for the department.

“The Department of Education has huge number of employees and many of them are not performing their duties to the level of expectations and desired results leading to large drop out and lower outcomes,” reads the communication addressed to Director Education Kashmir

“How a department having around 1.10 Teacher Student Ratio have such a result,” Singh questioned.
“It becomes inevitable to identify the non working or dead wood in both teaching and non teaching faculty who have either emptied the schools in enrollment by mostly resorting to private coaching or side business or have created corrupt and malicious work culture in offices,” it further reads

“This has put the public at great inconvenience and has proven counterproductive to the growth of the department,” it reads.

“In this backdrop the DSEK is directed to prepare a list of such employees as per the norms and furnish the list to this office within the 15 days for onward transmission to general administration for necessary action otherwise serious action under rules will be taken,” the communication reads.