Jammu, Kathua districts home to 70 pc ETT colleges

Jammu, Kathua districts home to 70 pc ETT colleges
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 16
The sudden rescheduling of the first year exams of the Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) course by the J&K State Board of School Education is not only giving a harrowing time to above 40,000 students, but is also giving sleepless nights to board officials, as it has raked up a major controversy.

The government records procured by The Tribune reveal that above 70 per cent of the total ETT institutes/colleges in the state have been sanctioned for Jammu and Kathua districts alone. These two districts account for over 88 per cent (32,262 students) of the total 36,475 students enrolled for the course. However, there is no information about 6,000 students enrolled recently, as the education board authorities are tight-lipped over the issue.

Both Jammu and Kathua districts are near Punjab and the board has sanctioned 323 colleges of the total 439 there alone, which raises a number of questions.

The document further reveals that Jammu district alone has 173 ETT colleges, which are catering to 16,519 students. Similarly, there are 150 ETT colleges in Kathua district and 15,743 students have been enrolled for the course there.

On the other hand, there are eight districts in the state which do not have even one ETT institute. Education Minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed had recently acknowledged that a large number of ETT students belonged to other states, mostly Punjab, but he had not mentioned why were the students of the state not opting for the course.

The ETT controversy erupted after the school board officials rescheduled the date sheet for the ETT first year exams. Earlier the exams were scheduled to begin yesterday (April 15) but were rescheduled for April 20.

Following this a number of disturbing facts, including some private ETT institutes running on fake addresses and above 100 institutes without adequate infrastructure, have come to light. However, the board officials are not ready to accept that there has been any negligence on their part.