Jammu 05 February (KNS): School Education Employees' Coordination Committee (SEECC) leadership that is presently stationed at Jammu, the summer capital, has sought meetings with almost all the top-rung officials of the education as well as other departments. The delegation led by Dr Manzoor Ahmad, President SEECC, along with Chairman Mr Ganesh Khajuria and President Mr Muhammad Akbar Khan, Jammu Kashmir Teachers' Forum have been on the job for quite some time now. The Chairman, Dr Manzoor Ahmad expressed vexation over the snail's pace in resolving all the issues that the teachers are confronted with in particular and the employees of the department in general. The "In-Charge" culture has been a bane and is irksome to one and all, this needs to be eradicated and uprooted for eternity.
As per the statement issued to KNS, Mr Ganesh Khajuria, Chairman Jammu Kashmir Teachers' Forum while sharing his views, has expressed dismay and termed it as the single largest discouraging element among the people. He drew the attention of Commissioner/Secretary School Education Department towards the chronic issue of head teachers who are suffering for almost a decade now. He impressed upon the administration to go for creation of the posts in favour of these head teachers.
Speaking at different occasions Mr Muhammad Akbar Khan, President Jammu Kashmir Teachers' Forum emphasised the need to fill all the vacancies in the department for the contentment of the staff which in turn shall be a morale booster and hence shall take the work culture some more notches higher.
Dr Manzoor Ahmad suggested some remedies to remove the lacunae in filling up of the vacant posts both at officer and official levels. He denounced the "allowances" set-up and asked the higher-ups to do away with this culture of paying peanuts for the most dignified job in the society. For the time being it would be better, if the suggestion is well taken, to have senior lecturers and masters placed as Head of the Institutions (HOIs) and vest in them the DDO powers, this shall resolve the problem and the institutions can work hassle-free as this is a better stop-gap arrangement. Giving vent to his sagaciousness he asked the authorities concerned to find via media for filling of posts of CEOs, Principals (both DIET and Higher Secondaries), DEPOs, Senior Lecturers, ZEOs, ZEPOs, SOs, Head Assistants Head Masters and other allied posts till we have clear cut directions from Hon’ble Supreme Court. Castigating the dictatorial attitude of some officials who are of the opinion that placements are not entitled to charge allowances, the quorum reiterated their resolve to eliminate the culture and have regular and empowered deployments at all levels in the department. The delegation raised brows over the promotion of officers to certain positions where they were told that the vacancies actually didn't exist. Unfortunately the same people have performed different assignments like, Magisterial duties, ROs, AROs, Nodal Officers during elections and pandemic respectively/simultaneously. The maltreatment meted to the officers is totally uncalled for and can be compared with basic human rights violations.
Mr Khajuria highlighted the issues related to the confirmation of ZEOs in the meeting. Mr Pradeep Sharma, President Jammu Kashmir Lecturers' Forum stressed upon the assured career progression (ACP)/running grade in favour of the lecturers of the UT, though he said that the case was taken for discussion but had to be put on the back-burner due to COVID-19 outbreak. But now the same is in almost final stage as the file is lying with finance department and it is just a matter of time. The demands for regulation of Class-IV and CPWs has been a priority at the same time in all the meetings so far.
The quorum in one voice suggested that those positions which are reserved for categories usually remain vacant most of the time. So it would be better to relax the rules and depute people from general category to those positions so that the institutions may not suffer for want of DDOs as this has direct bearing on administrative and financial issues and sometimes even in poor performance of the institution for lack of accountability.
Mr Muhammad Akbar Khan said that the organisation has been demanding removal of pay anomaly of masters since times immemorial and now the same stands renewed because since the status of UT it becomes imperative to the government to fulfil the demand for all cadres and employees of the UT. Furthermore Mr Khan said that in keeping with the changing trends and paperless offices time is apt to adopt digitalization in education department as well. Digitalization of GPF right from Zonal Offices to Directorate so that the process could be made more speedy, transparent and secure.
The quorum has also desired a complete revamp and overhaul of the teacher education institutions (DIETs) so that they may no longer be called as dumping sites of the department and safe heavens for VIPs. Need of the hour is to depute people who mean business and have hold and expertise over action-research, Pedagogy, andragogy etc. To add to it, there should be a separate cadre for teacher education institutions as laid in the guidelines by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
Non-vacational status of all Principals and Head Masters is yet another demand put forward by the forum members criticising the policy of discrimination as a class-IV employee or a clerk in the Higher Secondary or High School has the provision of earned leave by virtue of their being a Non-vacational job but the person who is the DDO of the said institute has a vacational job status. Hence deprived of the earned leave. The department has to call it a day for this discrimination too.
Last but not the least the delegation has asked the higher-ups not to be satisfied with just changing the nomenclature, but rather make the SCERT fully functional to achieve the desired results.(KNS)