Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, Brigadier (Dr) BD Mishra (Retd), held a meeting with officials of the School Education Department at the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat on June 28 to discuss the rationalisation of posts and resource persons.

Principal Secretary, Sanjiv Khirwar; Commissioner/Secretary to the LG, L Franklin; and Director of the School Education Department, Tsering Paldan, JKAS, were present in the meeting.

Sanjiv Khirwar and Tsering Paldan informed the LG about the rationalisation exercise and the steps taken to detach teaching/non-teaching staff in government schools for the benefit of students. Paldan reported that 48 master posts were shifted to headless Government Middle Schools with more than 20 students, while the senior-most teacher was given the role of head teacher in Government Middle Schools with fewer than 20 students. He also provided updates on the current status of teaching/non-teaching staff attachment in government schools, the principles for managing teachers, masters, and lecturers in primary, middle, secondary, and higher secondary schools in Ladakh, the proposed teacher-student ratio, and the number of surplus and shortage of teachers.

LG instructed Khirwar to take strict action against defaulting officials and teaching/non-teaching staff, and to ensure the maintenance of biometric attendance in all government schools in Ladakh. He emphasized the proper utilization of teachers, masters, and lecturers by ensuring that all teaching staff conduct at least four lectures a day. He also stressed that the rationalisation exercise should not impact students' studies and highlighted the need to maintain the correct student-teacher ratio in government schools.