Academic session on, newly selected teachers await formal orders

Srinagar, Mar 30: As academic session starts after winter vacations in Valley, the newly selected teachers recruited by Service Selection Board (SSB) are yet to be inducted in staff-crunch Education Department which, as per the insiders, is grappling with the shortage of more than 5,000 teachers.
Some 2154 General Line, Science-Math and Urdu teachers were recruited by the premiere Board, the final selection list of whom was released on February 25, and were supposed to join the department before the academic session starts in the Valley at the time issuance of advertisement.
However, the recruitment was caught in some legal and administrative issues that delayed the selection process and stretched the fast-track recruitment to more than a year now. But, the selected candidates rued the snail’s pace work by the administration to fulfill remaining official formalities.
“After the final selection was out last month, SSB dispatched the files to the Education Department during the first week of March for further process. But since then, the files are pending with Secretary Education’s office for approval,” an official of Education Department said, citing the need of early induction of teachers due to teaching staff crunch at the department.
He said that number of schools in Kashmir are grappling with the shortage of teaching staff, particularly subject teachers, and have been repeatedly asking DSEK to allot them the required staff but due to non-availability of staff they fail to do so.
“Now that we had staff hired through SSRB but their approval is pending with Secretary’s office. The further process should be done as early as possible because by not utilizing the available manpower, the administration is playing with the career of school children enrolled in the schools which are grappling with a staff shortage,” says the official.
Since the recruitment has already been finalized, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) which is currently in force will have no effect on selected teachers joining the department.