A one day conference on the education scenario in Leh district was organised by All Ladakh Teacher Association (ALTA) on 10 May.

CEC Dr. Sonam Dawa praised the constructive conference organised by ALTA; he welcomed any suggestion and change to bring in education policy.  He said, “It is a teacher who knows the education system of government school from the grass root level.”

Stanzin Lobsang, President of ALTA, said that education is a basic need for the development of any nation.  Aiming to impart education to all school going children, LAHDC has set education on priority with teaching-learning facilities. The infrastructure of schools in every corner of the district is created also scholarships and incentives are been given besides free education to attract children of the under privileged and weaker section of the society.

 

He further added that Leh has achieved around 81% literacy rate, which is much higher than national and state averages. But with such glorious achievements, there are some major issues which need to be addressed

Upliftment of government schools, coordination between official and field workers and approval of new transfer policies were discussed during the conference.

The members present at the conference unanimously drafted a memorandum as follow:

All the participants strongly suggested that software should be developed regarding transfer policy and the transfer of the staff of the education department.

All the participants strongly criticised the DDOs who skipped name of masters and teachers from the stay mature list. The participants suggest that strict action should be initiated against the defaulters. Sonam Dorjay headmaster assistant CEO Leh assured to initiate strict disciplinary action against such defaulters.

The transferred policy of 2016 was discussed and every participant expressed their view regarding the tenure, most of them pointed that most discussions needed in this regard. Some of the participants pointed that the transfer policy must be implemented to teachings staff of every zone of the district. The teaching staff of each zone must render tenure to every zone. The department of education assures that decision in this regard will be after deliberate at every level of the education department. The principal HM will submit a signatory proposal regarding the tenure, the department will decision in this regard within 15 days.

The participant appreciates that new point system of transfer policy 2016 proposed by ALTA further they were of the view that there should be the provision of negative points to those who serve two more terms in category A.

The members of the community discussed the evaluation creation which seems to be ambiguous. The entire member voiced against the present criteria and was of the view that it is adversely affecting the quality of education of the government schools. 

To uplift the quantitative and qualitative education in the government school in Leh, The session of the SSE exam should be reconsidered, through the issue needs much deliberation. Therefore, the committee comprising of CEO, Leh ZEOs principals HSS headmasters will be formed for the said proposed.

Several teachers spoke about how education could be used to uplift the status of government students within the Leh district.

And the voice was rose against the poor quality of textbook in the government schools, and the misprint and mistake in the textbook. All members unanimously suggested that an expert committee should be constituted to put forth and rectify the errors. All participants criticised abrupt change in the textbook and syllabus. All the issue regarding textbook and syllabus should be resolved.

The upliftment of education can be ensured only of proper attention is paid to the primary level. There should be at least five teaching staff in the primary schools as the workload in the primary schools is very high as the pre-primary class has been introduced in 2010 by LAHDC but a number of teaching staff has remained the same. And rationalisation must be made as per the teacher class ratio.

During the healthy and constructive discussion conference was held to provide an opportunity to discuss on the prevailing scenario of education in Leh district, which will enable to formulate a truly multiset of policy recommendation which can be presented to LAHDC.