Tourism, mass communication, disaster mgmt among 11 new subjects to be introduced at senior secondary level in J&K

In a major decision, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to introduce 11 new subjects, including business administration, rural development, disaster management and mass communication, at senior secondary level to keep the students abreast of the latest developments around the world.

For introducing new subjects, the UT school education department will have to arrange at least 638 posts of teacher, including 266 in Kashmir valley and 372 in Jammu region.

Apart from the proposal of introducing new subjects, the Directorates of School Education, Kashmir and Jammu, have sought creation of additional 2,277 posts, including 1,959 posts in Kashmir and 318 in Jammu region, in already introduced subjects.

“A total of 2,915 positions (including 638 posts for proposed new subjects) are required to be filled on adhoc basis from various subjects in which 2,225 are required in Kashmir division and 690 are in Jammu region,” the proposal said.

Importantly, tourism, the backbone of J&K economy, is also being introduced as one of the new subjects at senior secondary level.

“Of the 11 new subjects, there are at least seven being introduced only in Kashmir valley, including tourism, gender sanitisation, social work, disaster management, rural development, library sciences and bio-resources, while two subjects bio-chemistry and fine arts (music & painting) would be introduced in Jammu division only,” according to the government’s proposal.

“The content for introducing business administration, rural development, fisheries and mass communications needs to be developed and for this reputed experts, teachers and academicians need to involved at an earliest for which the school education and this organization needs to work in tandem for the content and syllabi development,” Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) has said in its action taken report (ATR).

The ATR has said, “For subjects including bio-resources, bio-diversity, climate changes, gender sensitisation, disaster management, first aid, traffic management and social work and human rights, the content of all such courses at School Education level is limited/integrated in nature and form the part of different textbooks of relevant character developed by JKBOSE.

However, in case the content and syllabi as separate subjects is to be developed, this organisation will do the necessary action on priority in cooperation with the School Education Department.”

At present, JKBOSE offers 52 subjects at senior secondary level (Class XI and Class XII), apart from vocational subjects, and has well developed syllabi and courses of study for these subjects for the convenience of the students.

The proposal also suggested that Heritage Crafts, Graphic Design, Creative writing and Translation, Fine Art, Engineering Graphics, Artificial Intelligence and Legal Studies can be introduced at Senior Secondary Level in J&K as are being offered by NCERT and CBSE.

TNS