Srinagar: The J&K government is all set to review the merger of government schools having meager or zero enrollment of students.
In this regard, a high-level meeting is scheduled on Monday morning at Civil Secretariat Jammu which will be chaired by the Principal Secretary to Government School Education Department (SED) Bishwajit Kumar Singh to review the merger of schools with low enrollment.
The meeting will be attended by the Director School Education Jammu, Director, School Education Kashmir through video conference form Kashmir, Project Director Samagra Shiksha J&K, Director Finance SED, Joint Director Planning SED and all Chief Education Officers (CEOs).
An official said a decision will be made to merge primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools having low enrollment while the students of these schools will be shifted to nearby schools. “The services of the teaching staff will be utilised in schools as per the requirement,” the official said.
Also, the office of the J&K Lieutenant Governor has also sought details of the staff strength and enrollment of the students in primary and middle schools.
“The office of the J&K LG has sought the details of teachers posted in the primary and middle schools, and also the enrollment in these schools,” reads a notification issued by a CEO, directing all the Zonal Education Officers (ZEOs) to furnish the details in a time-bound manner.
“All the ZEOs are directed to furnish the information to the office of the CEO so that it can be submitted to the office of the J&K LG within stipulated time,” the notification reads.
As already reported by this newspaper, the SED has consolidated details of the government schools for their merger with the adjacently-located schools owing to the meager or zero enrollment of students in these institutions.
The department has already sought enrollment status of primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools from the ZEOs. Besides the enrollment, the department has sought the status of the buildings of these schools as well.
The department has decided to merge around 2000 government schools having a meager of zero enrollment of students.
As per the government policy, the primary schools having less than 15 students, middle school with less than 30 students, high schools with less than 50 students will be merged with the nearby school to streamline the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in government schools.
“The details of the staff members are consolidated for their rationalization and use their services in other schools wherever required to overcome the dearth of the teaching staff,” an official said.