Kashmiri teaching not included in winter tutorials

Srinagar, Dec 31: After making the subject compulsory, the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) has excluded teaching Kashmiri language during winter tutorials in the valley.
While extra-curricular activities like have been allotted an hour, the compulsory Kashmiri language finds no mention in the time-table issued by the DSEK to the centres recently.
Post the government’s June order, which made teaching Kashmiri at the secondary level in the schools compulsory, it was expected that the DSEK would appoint the subject-specialist teachers at the centres to mark the beginning of the new academic session.
However, teachers from several winter tutorial centres across Kashmir told The Kashmir Monitor that the ‘compulsory’ subject was not being taught at the centres.
“There are no teachers for teaching Kashmiri at the centres even after the government’s order,” a teacher posted at one of the winter tutorial centres in central Kashmir’s Budgam district said.
With no specialist teachers for teaching the mother tongue, another teacher from the district who also teaches at one of the winter tutorial centres also said that there were no teachers for teaching the subject.
Referring to the DSEK’s issued time-table, which has omitted Kashmiri, a teacher from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district said, “We have to go by the department’s issued schedule.”
An insider from the DSEK said the subject was “not being taught” in winter tutorials.
Secretary Academy of Art Culture and Languages, Dr Aziz Hajini termed the DSEK’s omission of Kashmiri language from the time-table as “unfortunate”.
Secretary School Education Department, Farooq Ahmad Shah, said, “There are many general line teachers. We are looking how we can train the teachers for the job. We are at it”.
Shah didn’t confirm whether or not the government had any plans to create posts for Kashmiri teachers.
Against 70 posts of Kashmiri language teachers in higher education, the School Education Department, expected to impart basic knowledge in the language, has just 11 posts of the teachers, official sources revealed.
The 11 teachers in the schools across Kashmir have been appointed only in higher secondary schools to teach classes 11 and 12 students, said the sources.