The district education department has no reliable records detailing how many vacant posts for schoolteachers exist in Rawalpindi.
This has not only delayed inductions of new teachers but has also sent alarm bells ringing for the ones currently employed. Their jobs could be in jeopardy, if the government has no record of their service.
Discussions with different education department officials and senior schoolteachers revealed that recently, the district office sent a request for hiring against 2,000-plus vacant posts in Rawalpindi to the Punjab government. The office of the Punjab schools secretary then asked the Rawalpindi Education Department to provide details of some 1,300 posts that do not exist in any records, an education official revealed.
Interestingly, after receiving information on the issue, the Education executive district officer (EDO) formed a committee with senior teachers from all seven towns of Rawalpindi to update data on the number of posts existing in the district.
The committee — headed by Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, a grade-20 educationist — has further asked school heads to provide details of the posts and of the teachers working in their schools to the committee, the official said.
Interestingly, the school heads further asked the teachers to provide the notifications of their appointments, sending a wave of panic among some teachers who feared removal from service if the record of their post was not found in the education department, said a senior school teacher.
Opining on the reasons behind the problematic data on available sanctioned posts, Dr Saghir Alam Chaudhry, a representative of the Punjab Teacher Union, reckoned that the regularisation of hundreds of contractual teachers at different times since 1998 may be the cause.
Different schools were established some 14 years ago in Rawalpindi and hundreds of teachers were appointed on contract in them. Later in 2002, the district education department also hired a number of teachers on contract basis. All of these teachers were regularised in and after 2009 under a Supreme Court order, he said.
Highlighting the confusion of the education office, Chaudhry said he believed the jumbled transfers of teachers inter and intra district had further aggravated the situation.
Education EDO Qazi Zahoorul Haq confirmed that a rectification process for updating information about the number of posts was underway.
The committee has distributed forms to school heads and teachers asking for feedback on the location and nature of their posts, the EDO said. In reply to the question on the reasons for initiating the rectification process, the district head of Rawalpindi schools denied any direction from Punjab government.
However, he admitted that verified data of many posts did not exist with his office. He said over 15,000 teachers are employed in higher secondary, high, secondary and primary schools.
Regarding the timeline for the completion of the rectification exercise, EDO Qazi Zahoor said the process started two weeks ago and the committee would submit its report on October 15, but added that if more time was needed, it could be granted.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2012.
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Cm should have donated laptop to pinidi board to keep record of all employees
What Sheikh Rasheed did fot education in Rawalpindi, nobody has done.