In 1970, the state government of Jammu and Kashmir established its own education board and university. Education in the state is divided into primary, middle, high secondary, college and university level. Jammu and Kashmir follows 10+2 pattern for education of children. This is handled by Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (abbreviated as JKBOSE). Various private and public schools are recognized by the board to impart education to students. Board examinations are conducted for students in class VIII, X and XII. In addition there are various Kendriya Vidyalayas (run by the Government of India) and Indian Army schools that also impart secondary school education. These schools follow the Central Board of Secondary Education pattern.

Notable higher education or research institutes in Jammu and Kashmir include Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura Srinagar, National Institute of Technology Srinagar, Government College of Engineering and Technology of Jammu and the Government Medical College of Jammu. University-level education is provided by University of Jammu, University of Kashmir, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Islamic University of Science & Technology, and Baba Ghulam Shah Badhshah University.

Source : Wikipaedia

Recent Advancements & Trends

The literacy rate in the state in 2001 was only 55 per cent. A latest survey has indicated that it has increased up to 65.67 per cent, Education minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed told the state assembly.

The number of school dropouts has also reduced from 3.67 lakh to 0.39 lakh due to opening and upgrade of primary schools, establishment of education guarantee scheme (EGS) centres and organising seasonal camps.

To meet the shortage of teaching staff, about 6,000 teachers have been selected by Service Selection Board (SSB) and 54,497 Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) teachers engaged in newly opened and upgraded schools.

4,242 primary and 616 middle-school buildings have been constructed and 4,585 additional class rooms and 330 computer learning centres established.

For girl child education, Sayeed said 78 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) have been made operational, while construction of 60 of them is in progress.

Under mid-day meal scheme, 8.51 lakh and 3.14 lakh children have been covered at primary and upper-primary level, respectively, during the current fiscal.

Girl hostels and model schools are being established in educationally backward areas and scholarships for 4,206 SC and ST and KGBV passed out girls at the rate of Rs 3,000 per child sanctioned by the Centre have been credited to their accounts.

Also, 145 out of 300 mobile schools for Gujjars and Bakerwals which were earlier closed due to militancy are being re-started.

About 20 members took part in the debate on the demand after which grants amounting to Rs 262039.08 lakh were passed by the House.

Source : Zee News

Right to Education Act

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act has come into force in the country, barring Jammu and Kashmir. The border state is still figuring out whether to ask the Centre for extension of the Act to its territory or not. This, despite being home to students with the worst learning outcomes in the country. Just 27 per cent of Class V graders in J&K can read Class II text; only 16 per cent of all schoolchildren (six to 14 years) can recognise numbers 1 to 9; 28 per cent can do subtractions and only 20.6 per cent can do divisions.

That apart, because the state enjoys special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, it needs to make a special reference to the government if it wants a central Act applied to it.

It now turns out that the state has yet not made any reference to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to seek the extension of the Act to its territory.

The law, passed by Parliament in August last year and notified for implementation from April 1 this year, binds states to offer free and compulsory education to children aged six to 14 years in neighbourhood schools. States will get three years from April 1 to put their acts together.

While every state government has begun evolving the definition of neighbourhood schools to cover every child, J&K is reluctant to bind itself to the law that has huge financial implications. It wants greater central assistance to implement the Act.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told The Tribune that the current ratio of cost sharing for RTE Act between the Centre and states would be 55:45, except for north-eastern states, where 90:10 formula could apply.

Jammu & Kashmir, citing its backward status, wants itself equated to the North-East insofar as finances for the Act go. When contacted, School Education Minister for the state Peerzada Sayeed admitted to TNS: “We don’t have the money to run the RTE Act or to train teachers. We can implement the Act only with greater central assistance, with 90:10 cost sharing between the Centre and us.” Peerzada excused the state, saying it was already offering free and compulsory education to students up to class XII. “We have framed these rules only today,” he said. Meanwhile, Additional Secretary, School Education, J&K Arifullah cited the experience of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) under which the central-state cost sharing ratio declined from 80:20 in 2001 to 60:40.

Source : South-asian Free Media Association

English Medium Education in J&K – A Surprise

Here’s a surprise. Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country — outside of northeast — where more students study in the English medium than any other language.

In fact, there are more students attending English-medium schools in J&K than in big states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh. In terms of sheer numbers, Andhra Pradesh has more students studying in the English medium than any other state, followed by Tamil Nadu. These figures only account for students studying in government and government-aided schools.

Interestingly, states ranked at the top of the recently-developed Educational Development Index (EDI) — Kerala and Delhi — don’t seem to be doing too well when it comes to imparting English-medium education to their children. Students enrolled in English medium schools in these two states are only a small fraction of those receiving instruction in Malayalam and Hindi respectively.

The figures came to light when TOI compared EDI rankings with State Report on Elementary Education in India, 2005, a National University of Educational Planning and Administration publication. EDI rankings did not take the medium of instruction as a performance indicator.

In the so-called Bimaru states of Bihar and UP, English-medium students lag further behind in enrolment numbers. In Bihar, they are under the “others” category and in UP, their numbers are only in thousands.

But education in English is spreading too. In Jammu and Kashmir, English has emerged at the most preferred medium while this is also the case in north-eastern states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. In Mizoram, English is next to Mizo as a medium of instruction.

In Andhra Pradesh, of a total of 1.13 crore students, while 90.34 lakh students go to schools where Telugu is the medium of instruction, 19.32 lakh attend English medium schools.

Source : Times of India

Central University Issue in J&K

The latest issue to have ignited regional tensions between Jammu and Kashmir was the Central university (CU) question. Coming close on the heels of the Amarnath Shrine Board agitation last year, the prospect of the CU row escalating into an issue of a similar magnitude, led the state and central governments to intervene, thereby, saving the day.

Announced by the Prime Minister at Jammu University in 2007, Singh stated that “at least one” of the 30 new central universities announced by the centre, would “be [set up] in the state.” While he remained non-committal regarding the location of the university, most media and local accounts from either region maintain that while the CU was proposed to be set up in Jammu, an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) had been granted to Kashmir Valley.

Trouble began when the CU office started operating from a temporary campus in Srinagar under Vice Chancellor Abdul Wahid, who even advertised for faculty positions for the proposed university. Following this, agitations started gaining momentum in Jammu region, demanding that the university be ‘returned’ to it. Protestors alleged that the state government had deliberately set up the university office in Srinagar in an attempt to ‘shift’ the university to the Valley even when land had already been identified in Samba district in Jammu region for its establishment. The state government’s efforts to tide over the growing unrest by proposing to establish a bi-campus university fueled even greater protests.

With the experience of the 2008 land agitation still fresh in political memory and the possibility of the eruption of fresh trouble between the regions, a delegation from the state, headed by the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, met the Prime Minister. to urge the centre to grant two central universities to J&k instead of one to meet the ‘regional aspirations’ of the people. An announcement to this effect came from the HRD ministry towards the end of September stating that the central government had decided to establish, ‘as a special dispensation,’ two central universities – one each in Jammu and Kashmir.

After going against its policy to grant J&K’s demand for two Central universities, one each in Srinagar and Jammu, the Centre is sitting on the appointment of Prof Amitabh Mattoo as Vice-Chancellor of Jammu Central University.

Prof Mattoo was recommended for the post by the Union HRD Ministry nearly two months ago, but his candidature is held up in Rashtrapati Bhawan owing to a series of letters terming him “pro-Pakistan”, “pro-separatists”, “not a true Kashmiri Pandit” and “a rank outsider to Jammu”.

The letters have been sent to President Pratibha Patil by Jammu Joint Students Federation, Peoples Revolutionary Movement, Joint Action Committee of Students and Scholars, Jammu Central University Morcha, Panthers Party and Shri Ram Sena, among others.

The President, as Visitor to Central universities, gives the final approval to the appointment of a candidate as V-C. The candidate is selected by a search-cum-selection committee.

The President usually does not spend much time in giving its approval, but Mattoo’s case has hung on. Rashtrapati Bhawan had reportedly sent the letters to the HRD Ministry for its views. In its reply, the ministry said Mattoo’s name was selected by a committee of experts after due deliberations and so it could not vouch for it in any way. On Mattoo not being a “true Jammuite”, the ministry has pointed out that Central Universities Act, 2009 clearly states that domicile cannot be an issue in the selection of a V-C. Mattoo, incidentally, was born in Srinagar.

Mattoo’s academic credentials can hardly be questioned. He is Professor of International Politics at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, member of the National Knowledge Commission, member of the Monitoring Committee of French Research Institutes in India and Fellow of the 21st Century Trust. He is on the Executive Committee of the Pugwash India Society.

Mattoo has served as the youngest V-C of Jammu University and has been member of the National Security Advisory Board, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholar at the University of Oxford, Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Paris, and Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University.

It is his association with Pugwash Society, which is considered as being slightly harsh on India, that his critics attack him for the most. They also allege that his tenure as Jammu University V-C was unimpressive, “marked by irregular appointments, financial irregularities” and so on.

Source : IPCS & Kashmir Live

IAS Topper from J&K

Overcoming all ordeal and militancy atmosphere in the valley, Kupwara boy Shah Faesal topped the list of three-phase Indian Administrative Service (IAS) 2009. Dr Faesal also become the first Kashmiri to top the Civil Services examination. His success will also set an example in the valley and State. Faesal belongs to Kupwara district of Kashmir, which is believed to be militancy gate. The 26-year-old MBBS graduate, who topped the list of 875 successful candidates, said that he was not the first Kashmiri to achieve the milestone he was also second Muslim in the history to achieve the feet. Faesal said that it was not only cracking Civil Services, the highest job in India, but it was battle against the all odds.
His family moved to Srinagar from Sogam village in Kupwara after brutal murder of his father in 2003. His father Ghulam Rasool was a schoolteacher and well-known personality in the village. He fell prey to militancy bullets without any reason. After father’s death, Faesal’s family left their native place for never to return.Despite his science background, Faesal had chosen Urdu literature and public administration as his optional subjects for the civil service exam.

Source : Samay

Contributed By:-Rahil Gupta