After six months of waiting, the anthropology and archaeology graduate candidates have received rejection letters.
HYDERABAD: The Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) had invited applications for vacant positions of assistant curator/field officer (BPS-16) in the Sindh Department of Culture in February 2013. The eligibility criteria were a master’s degree in anthropology/archaeology/sociology or classical languages with a postgraduate diploma in museology or archaeology.
Many candidates, including myself, who fulfilled the requirements, applied for the posts and then began their wait for a response from the SPSC. But after six months of waiting, the anthropology and archaeology graduate candidates, unexpectedly, have received rejection letters. All of us have been told that we failed to submit the required documents, i.e., a diploma in archaeology/museology within the stipulated time.
Firstly, one wonders at the requirement, which says that someone who has a master’s degree in anthropology and archaeology should also have a diploma in archaeology. All over the world, one cannot find such a case, which unfortunately, we are now compelled to face. When a candidate, who has studied a subject, i.e., archaeology, for four years, and undertaken extensive research, why does he/she still need a diploma in the same subject? According to this yardstick, an applicant with a graduate degree in anthropology/archaeology is not equivalent to someone who has a BA and a diploma in archaeology.
We find this discriminatory and feel that it is designed to keep those who would otherwise qualify for such jobs away from them. We appeal to the SPSC to reconsider this requirement.
Ali Taqui Shah and others
Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th, 2013.
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