Srinagar: Amid the delay in reshuffling the teaching staff in schools through Annual Transfer Drive (ATD)-2022, the government on Thursday said the transfers of Lecturers and Masters will be completed by the end of this month.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, principal secretary School Education Department (SED) Bishwajit Kumar Singh said the department is working on transfers and that the reshuffle of lecturers and masters will be completed by April 30.
Transfer of teachers will follow after that but it will take some time. But transfers will be done definitely,” he told Greater Kashmir.
The ATD was introduced in the 2021 academic year to do away with the routine manual transfer system with less human intervention. The move was aimed to streamline the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in schools.
This year, the exercise for transfer of teachers, masters and lecturers was started in January and February months when the schools were closed for winter vacations. But despite the passage of over four months, the transfers of masters and teachers are yet to be done.
“We are at it and the transfers will be done soon. We will complete the whole process in the shortest possible time. The number is huge so it takes time,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, amid the delay in transfers of masters and teachers, those teachers and masters posted in 3rd zones (very hard zones) from the past two years have not been repatriated to the normal zones with a replacement of a new batch of teachers to these areas.
Earlier, the teachers posted in 3rd zones were shifted back to their parent schools after spending one year and replaced by an equal number of teachers deputed to the school in 3rd zones,” an aggrieved teacher posted in 3rd zone said.
“But with the introduction of ATD, we were made to suffer and continue for 3rd consecutive year in schools of 3rd zones,” he said.
Meanwhile, Principal Secretary said there will be no discrimination with any teacher or master as per the transfer policy of the department.
“The teachers in 3rd zones will be brought back provided they are not recruited under SRO 202. We will take care of everyone as per the policy,” he said.
