Avinash Azad
The J&K government’s response to MLA M Y Tarigami’s queries in Tuesday’s assembly session has laid bare a crumbling school education system plagued by temporary staffing, stagnant wages, and unfilled vacancies.
To address acute shortages in High and Higher Secondary Schools, 1,496 Cluster Resource Coordinators (CRCs) were hired in 2024-25 on a meager Rs. 25,000 monthly honorarium, set to expire on March 31, 2025.
A proposed hike to Rs. 30,000 awaits approval from the Ministry of School Education and Literacy, GoI, under Samagra Shiksha, exposing the precarious nature of these stopgap measures.
Vocational education, a touted success, spans 1,350 schools with 2,187 trainers and 48 coordinators engaged via 18 outsourced Vocational Training Providers (VTPs). Yet, trainers earn just Rs. 20,000 monthly, with a proposed Rs. 30,000 for 2025-26 still pending.
Meanwhile, Cooks-cum-Helpers under PM POSHAN toil for a paltry Rs. 1,000 monthly, with pleas for hikes ignored by the Centre. The department’s reliance on outsourcing and temporary hires reflects a deeper malaise—frozen recruitment and bureaucratic inertia.
Vacancies further cripple the system: 3 Joint Directors, 98 Principals, 18 ZEOs, 166 Headmasters, 727 non-teaching staff, and 43 MTS posts remain unfilled. While 594 Lecturer posts were recently referred to JKPSC and 570 promotions are in the pipeline, non-gazetted hiring has been stalled for six years due to a 2018 SAC decision freezing teacher posts.
Regularization of in-charge officers, pending since 2007-2011, is inching forward, but codal delays persist. Tarigami’s probe has exposed a system teetering on ad-hoc fixes, underpaid staff, and a leadership vacuum. With funds trickling from the Centre and local recruitment paralyzed, J&K’s school education faces a bleak future—leaving students and educators to bear the brunt of administrative neglect.
