“Teachers must assume their profession with pride and dignity”
By Farooq Shah
SRINAGAR- In a first, Chief Secretary, J&K, Arun Kumar Mehta (IAS), held an open discussion with the teaching faculty to discuss the salient features of the National Education Policy aka NEP-2020 and other issues confronting the teaching faculty at the Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar here today.
The event was organized by the School Education Department under the direction of Principal Secretary B K Singh (IFS), and was attended by a number of dignitaries, including Director School Education Kashmir. Special Secretary School Education, Director School Education Jammu and Secretary JKBOSE attended the event via videoconferencing.
Samagra Shikhsha, J&K, SCERT Jammu, all the Chief Education Offices (CEO), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET), Zonal Education Offices (ZEOs) also attended the event via videoconferencing.
Members of the faculty from the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Kashmir and Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) also attended the event.
Director of School Education Kashmir, Dr. Tasaduq Hussain, welcomed the participants and praised the occasion, describing it as a “watershed” moment in the history of J&K education for a Chief Secretary to meet with the teaching staff one-on-one to discuss both the education policy and their problems.
“In a time when school enrollment in our schools has increased by 90%, this event will serve as a springboard for each of us to change for the better,” Dr. Tasaduq added. “We must leave our comfort zones and make a difference so that J&K serves as a model for the entire nation.”
Principal Secretary B K Singh praised the teaching community for pulling off the event on such short notice and claimed that the J&K UT was moving forward in the field of education.
In reference to the recently released National Assessment Survey (NAS) findings, Singh stated that the efforts of all those involved in the educational system greatly contributed to J&K’s performance exceeding the national average.
Singh used a digital presentation to demonstrate J&K’s progress in implementing the NEP 2020, deliverables, human resource management, and the Annual Transfer Drive (ATD), while the Chief Secretary patiently answered audience members’ queries.
The old idea of formal training was “far behind us,” according to Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, who emphasized the need to adopt a digital approach to teacher preparation.
In the near future, Mehta said, “nations that fall behind in digital technology would not survive at all.”
“J&K, which has emerged as a leader among the Union Territories in switching over to the digital technologies, must not at all fall into complacency,” he remarked.
He asserted that teachers should embrace their profession with pride because teaching is a noble profession.
“It’s crucial that a teacher develops a relationship with a pupil based on empathy, responsibility, and dedication rather than on salary,” Mehta implored. “We would not in any way be encouraged by a teacher who let us down in our endeavour.”
While bemoaning the lopsided pupil-teacher ratio in J&K schools, Mehta stated that attempts are being made to reinforce complexes so that resources—both human and otherwise—will be utilized equitably by all the children in a location.
No region should be deemed to be “educationally backward”, he said. “It will quickly become a think of past.”
Mehta recommended that the procedure for the transfer policy for the teaching staff—teachers, masters, and lecturers—be revisited after inputs from the stakeholders were sought.
The online system, he said, has helped to make the transactions as clear as possible, but it needs to be updated to incorporate provisions that, where necessary, take individual requirements into account.
“Those with programming skills must write codes for the aim of updating the software and share them with the relevant authorities.” Mehta said.
He also recommended creating a feedback system to examine the issues that the teachers and students were having.
Mehta stated that it was crucial to involve parents in understanding each child’s unique difficulties and getting their opinion. In order to establish positive examples, a rating system should be implemented in schools for both schools and teachers.
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