Voices concern over proliferation of ‘ghost schools’
Srinagar, Aug 25: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that some teachers are using influence to avoid postings in rural schools, a practice he claimed has created a staff imbalance that leaves village schools understaffed and urban ones overcrowded.
Addressing a function at the Sher-I-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar, the Chief Minister voiced concerns over the proliferation of ‘ghost schools’, where students enroll merely to appear for board exams while spending their academic time in attending private tuition centres instead of government classrooms.
Omar on the occasion as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) raised concerns about the difficulties faced by teachers posted in rural areas.
He said, “Teachers without any influence often remained stationed in schools of rural areas while those with connections manage to secure postings in urban schools.”
“Some teachers posted in villages of rural schools with no influence never return from the village schools. They don’t get exposure to city schools while there are some teachers in our School Education Department who have only influence, they may not have even see a posting in village schools. They only work in city schools,” Omar said.
The Chief Minister further said that “The disparity was causing greater staffing challenges as some urban schools had surplus teachers with fewer students. Those schools have more teachers and fewer students.”
Omar also referred to concerns over ‘Ghost Schools’ wherein the students get admission in the schools but do not attend classes and instead rely on private tuition before appearing for board examinations.
“Those schools where students take admission only to register their name and to sit for the board exam. They never come to attend the classes. They sit in the tuition centre and spend the whole day there,” he added.
“On one hand, smartphones, social media and artificial intelligence are changing the classroom environment and on the other side teachers are being assigned additional duties related to official government functions, election duties and other programmes,” he said.
“We really put a lot of responsibility on our teachers. The future of Jammu and Kashmir lies in the hands of our teachers in grooming our children,” Omar said.
“If there is a function on 15th August or on 26th January, we ask the teachers to prepare the children, to organise a cultural programme,” he said.
The Chief Minister said teaching nowadays is more challenging in comparison to 10-20 years ago. “Teachers had to compete with multiple sources of information and knowledge available to children.”
Referring to artificial intelligence, Omar said the emergence of AI had created another challenge for teachers in assessing the assignments given to students’.
“It is very challenging to our teaching community to assess as to whether the assignment has been completed by the children by themselves or with the help of artificial intelligence tools,” he said.
The Chief Minister further said that the government often does not show the pace enough to show the same urgency when teachers approach us with their own grievances. “I must say that when it comes to solving the problems of students, their files don’t go forward as fast as those files should go.
“We do not bring teachers to government functions by choice but by compulsion. Despite that they fulfil their assigned role so perfectly,” he added.
Omar acknowledged the issues like transfers, Departmental Promotion Committees (DPCs), vacancies in the education sector. “There is a dire need to address these issues with the same speed as the teaching community shows in accepting multiple roles.”
The Chief Minister acknowledged gaps in school infrastructure and said the government was gradually working to address issues including unsafe buildings and inadequate facilities.
“There are gaps in the infrastructure. We talk about smart classes, but how far have we reached with smart classes for our children? Smart classes are still far away,” Omar said.
Making a clear distinction between the responsibilities of teachers and the government, Omar said infrastructure and staffing related issues cannot be expected to get resolved by teachers.
“Fixing the infrastructure and filling the vacancies is not the teachers responsibility, it is the responsibility of the government,” he said.
Omar also spoke about the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), saying the government is repeatedly trying to oppose its implementation in J&K.
The Chief Minister on the occasion said that the responsibility of shaping the future of the children cannot be placed on teachers alone, stressing that the government, parents and teachers must work together to prepare children for a rapidly changing world.
He said that the teachers play a crucial role in determining the future of children, but placing the entire responsibility on them would be unfair and add unnecessary pressure to an already demanding profession.
Reflecting on the changing nature of the teaching profession, Omar said the challenges before teachers today are very different from those faced 10, 15 or 20 years ago. (KNO)
