SRINAGAR: At least 155 teaching posts, 55 lecturers and 35 masters, along with 65 teachers whose posts are frozen, are lying vacant in high and higher secondary schools in Karnah, the Assembly was informed, highlighting a substantial staff gap in the constituency’s institutions.
The disclosure came in reply to an unstarred question tabled by Javid Ahmad Mir. The School Education Department, Jammu and Kashmir, acknowledged a “dearth” of lecturers, masters and teachers and provided sanctioned versus working strength for Karnah.
According to the figures placed on record, against 83 sanctioned lecturer posts only 28 are working, leaving 55 vacant. In the master category, 98 posts are sanctioned and 63 are working, leaving 35 vacant. In the teacher category, 224 posts are sanctioned and 159 are working, with 65 posts shown as vacant but described as “frozen for drawal of salary”, which the department said means there is no “effective vacancy”.
To address the shortfall, the department said it will rely on the rationalisation of staff and deployment of Cluster Resource Coordinators. It added that 594 lecturer posts have been referred to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission for recruitment and that promotions of PG masters and teachers to higher ranks are under way to ease shortages across the Union territory, including Karnah.
