As I am writing this letter to you, socio-political conditions of the state are in a very unfortunate state. People have witnessed the worst during more than half a century. As we all know that the nature of the problem has not only affected the governance, human rights and other important institutions of this unfortunate land, but at the same time it has greatly harmed our education system. The start of armed struggle and counter insurgency operations in Kashmir led our whole education system go in shambles. People of the state have gone through tough times; there were hardly any government educational institutions in the valley which worked up to the expectations of the people, which definitely had a serious negative impact on our education system. Government of the day tried to rebuild the education system by different measures and policies and many centrally sponsored schemes were also implemented in the state. However, these education schemes have their own advantages and disadvantages. Once these schemes are drafted and implemented, their negative implications become more and more clear.
One such schemes was SSA. The main aim and objective of this scheme was to enhance the primary education of the state. There were some flaws in recruitment process of this scheme. No doubt educated youth were recruited at village level on merit basis. But at the same time, the recruitment of SSA teachers had its own loopholes. The criteria was set that the candidates who would cross the passing percentage would get selected, e.g., the candidates with 40-44% marks were selected as ReTs. To be honest when we observe these teachers and their work, they are not able to teach the students and deliver up to the level, and interest of a child. I am not generalizing the entire selection of these teachers, no doubt there are highly qualified and trained youth who were appointed under this scheme and are performing well. However, in many cases candidates having just 12th as their maximum qualification were recruited, which led to the serious blow so for as the realization of the basic goal of these schemes is concerned. While as it should have been on the pattern of other states of the country like, Assam and some union territories like Dadra and Nagar Havelli etc, where 50% marks and professional course in education was set as eligibility criteria for the appointment of SSA teachers.
[“Source-greaterkashmir”]
