Report on The Reorganisation of The Education Department J & K State

Abstract

From Introduction: In the wake of independence there has been a great awakening and upsurge amongst the masses all over the country for more and more educational facilities, J & K being no exception. The thirst for education has reached the farthest comers and, as a result, over the last 25 years there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of educational institutions as well as the number of students and of teachers. The Free Education policy of the J & K State Government, adopted some 20 years ago, provided a fillip to this movement. A comparison of the figures for the years 1951 and 1971 shows that Primary Schools in J & K State have increased five-fold (from 1,115 to 5,373); Middle Schools have increased ten times (from 139 to 1,406); and High/Higher Secondary Schools have also registered a similar multiple, going up from 55 to 577. This rapid increase in the number of institutions has also resulted in an increase of teachers from 4,000 to over 21,000 during the period under reference. But strangely enough, there has not been a corresponding increase in the supervisory staff and the administrative machinery has virtually remained at a standstill with the result that the standards of instruction have not improved. Supervision of schools is spasmodic, irregular and almost perfunctory. Numerous institutions are under-staffed whereas quite a few of them are also over-staffed. There has also been an excessive concentration of powers and responsibilities at the level of the Directorate and the Secretariat. The Department has also to face, not far hence, the challenges of the Fifth Five-Year Plan and to fulfil the constitutional obligation of providing universal education for the age group 6—14. All this has under-lined the urgent necessity of reorganising the J & K Education Department in such a way that it becomes an effective instrument for implementation of the various educational policies and programmes and is able, in particular, to meet the challenges that face it.