SED gears up for its largest online transfer drive
Transparency and efficiency in transfers through e-portal: Alok Kumar
Srinagar, May 03: Process has begun for transfer of employees of the School Education Department (SED) of J&K through an online portal, the drive the largest till date, and meant to rationalize the staff across various areas of the UT categorized as hard and soft zones.
Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary to J&K Government (Department of Education), said the exercise has been initiated to ensure that the data pertaining to the postings and tenure of employees of the department is accurate. “We are dealing with a huge manpower and the e-portal will ensure that we have up-to-date information about each and every employee and their postings. This is crucial for affecting transparency and efficiency in transfers,” he said.
He further said that transfer, place of posting and retention at a place of posting is the prerogative of the Government. “Many factors, which include the requirements of an educational institute, performance of the teacher, and their standing against other applicants for a posting, will be taken into consideration,” he said, adding that the process would be ‘scientific in approach’.
As per the notification issued by J&K Government (01-JK Edu of 2023), online representations have been invited from the eligible employees for online transfers 2023, scheduled to get completed by 15 June this year. Employees have been directed to submit their representation for transfers by 11 May 2023. The employees who have to mandatorily apply for transfers include teachers, masters, lecturers, principals, headmasters, Zonal Education Officers and equivalents. An employee needs to apply for posting in a school outside the Zone where she or she is currently posted.
“Eligible employees not applying for transfer despite having a mature stay shall be transferred by the Department anywhere as per the requirement of the Department.” Mature stay has been defined as serving in a specific zone for a period of three years. The Notification was partially modified on 28 April and employees, barring teachers: Masters grade and above, were permitted to apply in the same zone of posting as they may currently be serving.
The drive is set to affect nearly 20,000 teachers, an official in the School Education Department said. He said the drive is the largest transfer drive in the UT, where it is compulsory that every teacher, who has completed tenure of two or three years, depending on the zone, will need to apply in a different zone.
Earlier this year, the J&K Government issued a list of schools under the School Education Department of J&K, and the categorized those into five zones. A zone has been decided on the basis of the distance of the particular school from a particular district headquarter. Schools falling within 7 km of the district headquarter have been placed in Zone 1, 7 km-14 km is Zone II, 14 km to 20 km is Zone III, 20 km to 40 km is Zone IV and falling away more than 40 km from the district headquarters is Zone V. “The tenure of the employees in Zone-I, II and III shall ordinarily be three years, at a particular school while Zone-IV and V shall ordinarily be two years and one year respectively, at a particular school.”
There are a total of 12138 schools as per the Zone list issued by the department. While announcing the online mode of application and execution of transfers in the School Education Department, Kumar had earlier said that the exercise would be annual one and carried out in a manner which will not affect the academic activities and session. The purpose, as per the department, is that every employee must serve in easy to access and difficult areas, and to rationally allocate staff in all schools irrespective of their accessibility from district headquarters. (Greater Kashmir)
