He recently took over as the Education Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. But he never knew that he would become a school teacher only to infuse a new life to the almost dead education sector of the state. Naeem Akhtar, also the most trusted man of J&K Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Saeed, is on tenterhooks ever since he took over as the Education Minister of J&K in the ruling PDP-BJP dispensation. He says there is a dire need to give a new direction to the education system.

The present education system is in a mess with the teacher student ratio completely off. There are schools without teachers and teachers without students... and in some places one teacher for a hundred students.

Naeem's predecessor Tara Chand was alleged to be a middle pass.

In the last two decades of conflict, the education sector has been the worst hit because of the political turbulence, poor administration and more recently by the devastating floods.

Naeem expressed happiness when he was asked about a survey that showed data on elementary education in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in comparison to Indian part of Kashmir.

"I do not know when surveys have shown the PoK institutes performing better than us, but I am very happy to know that some part of the erstwhile state has come in the news for a good reason,"Naeem told local news gathering agency KNS.

Photo by: Javaid Lone