Teacher recruitment plan under scrutiny as Finance Deptt seeks clarity on ReT transition, posts

Srinagar, Jun 7: The J&K Finance Department has sought detailed clarification on the status of Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) teachers, their regularisation and transition besides the utilisation of supernumerary posts, before taking a call on the de-freezing of vacancies for recruitment of General Line Teachers (GLTs) across Jammu and Kashmir.

As per the official communication addressed to the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK), the Under Secretary of the J&K School Education Department said the Finance Department raised a series of observations and sought district-wise data regarding the number of regularised and unregularised ReTs, teachers transitioned to Teacher Grade-II and Teacher Grade-III, untransitioned ReTs, and the current status of supernumerary posts created during the transition process. Following these observations, J&K SED directed DSEK to gather the requisite information from all the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) across J&K for submission to the administrative department.

The School Education Department informed the Directors of School Education Jammu and Kashmir that the proposal for de-freezing teacher vacancies was referred to the Finance Department for advice. The finance department has returned the proposal and asked the SED to clarify how many years would be required to complete the process of subsumption if 50% of vacancies are reserved for regularisation of eligible ReTs and adjustment of supernumerary posts. “The Department should also explore reserving 75% of vacancies for regularisation of eligible ReTs and adjustment of supernumerary posts and indicate the time required for complete subsumption,” the official document reads. The finance department has asked SED to provide details regarding point-wise implementation of Cabinet decisions dated 07-12-2018 and 08-07-2019.

“Provide year-wise information from 2003-04 onwards regarding level of funding under the SSA framework for engagement of teachers, actual salary cost of ReTs and salary cost of ReTs recouped to the government exchequer,” it reads. SED has been asked to provide the current Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in Jammu and Kashmir vis-à-vis SSA/Samagra norms and explain “how PTR would be affected by 50% de-freezing of vacancies.”

The Finance Department further sought the concrete studies and supporting data linking poor learning outcomes with freezing of teacher posts. “Provide details of efforts undertaken by the department to upskill regularised ReTs as envisaged in earlier Cabinet or administrative council decisions,” it reads.

The finance department has sought year-wise trend of student enrolment in government schools at primary, middle and secondary levels from 2003-04 onwards. “Give clarification regarding consultations undertaken by the department, as the proposed de-freezing could impact the career prospects of ReTs, both regularised and yet to be regularised,” the document reads. The finance department has also sought year-wise break-up of the subsumption of approximately 39,000 ReT posts. In wake of this, DSEK has asked all the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) to furnish information in a prescribed format detailing the total number of ReTs, their regularisation status, transition status, and utilisation of supernumerary posts.

Notably, the finance department has raised the observations at a time when thousands of educated unemployed candidates have been demanding fresh recruitment of teachers in the school education department. “The exercise will help the government to ascertain the exact vacancy position and avoid any overlap between existing manpower liabilities and proposed fresh appointments,” the official said.

He said the information collected from districts will be consolidated and forwarded to the administrative department examining the proposal for de-freezing of posts for fresh recruitment of General Line Teachers in the department. As already reported by this newspaper, SED initiated an exercise to de-freeze 50 percent posts of General Line Teachers (GLT) which were utilised to absorb erstwhile SSA teachers against the substantiated posts. The decision to de-freeze 50 percent of the positions was taken during a meeting chaired by education minister Sakina Itoo on June 25 of 2025. The then government in 2018 freezed hundreds of posts to absorb erstwhile SSA teachers as Grade-II and Grade-III teachers as per the SAC decision number 166/22/2018 taken on December 7 of 2018.