400 AJK teachers to face music for poor result in exams

ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) spends one third of its budget on education yet it is far away from yielding fruitful results as in many schools and colleges not even a single student managed to pass the board examination which has jolted the AJK’s Education Department.
Some four hundred teachers of secondary schools besides 15 heads of educational institutions have been suspended during the last two weeks and these teachers will face the music under Removal from Service Special Power Act 2001, said the Secretary Education AJK Raja Abbas while talking to The News.
He mentioned that the Education Department was concerned about the deteriorating condition of basic education in AJK because the state was spending 33% of its budget on education yet tens of dozens of government schools and colleges were producing zero results as not a single student could pass the exam of elementary boards held in the ten districts of AJK. Raja Abbas said that
In the history of AJK for the first time suspension of teachers on such large scale is made which is widely appreciated from all segments of society not only in AJK but also from expatriates settled in foreign countries, the Secretary said.
“In Muzaffarabad alone, there were at least four ghost schools being run at government expense which have been closed and hundreds others will be pointed out and shut down soon,” said Raja Abbas.
He added, “In AJK, another practice is very common as a primary or secondary teacher sublets his job by hiring another person in his place at low rates and by this way, the said teacher draws hefty salary but never attends the school.” The secretary said that the Education Department has imitated the drive to hunt down such teachers as well. He was of the view that with the support of the government, minister, Chief Secretary AJK and the civil society, such steps have been taken and teachers on massive scale have been suspended including female teachers. He said that otherwise the literacy rate in AJK is 76.6% yet no one has paid attention to the basic education where thousands of teachers were not even matriculate. “We have fought against the Middle-pass teachers and have not got rid of them by offering them golden hand shake,” the secretary held.
Raja Abbas added that he has asked for the submission of degrees of all teachers and will be verifying the degrees of over fifty thousand teachers teaching in 6100 schools across AJK. He said that his department is also working on separating teaching cadre from the administrative cadre so that the teachers may only concentrate on teaching. In addition, Raja Abbas said, capacity building and trainings are also being given to the teachers to enhance their capabilities.