Merit selection: NTS, AJK education dept sign agreement

NTS will test prospective teachers to help gauge proficiency

MUZAFFARABAD: The Education Department of Azad Kashmir and the National Testing Service Islamabad (NTS) have signed an MoU to improve the quality of education in the region and to devise a comprehensive mechanism for the appointment of teachers on merit in AJK.

AJK Education Secretary Irshad Ahmed Qurashi and the NTS Chief Executive Dr Shahzad Khan on Tuesday signed the MoU during a formal ceremony. Senior education department and NTS officials were also present.

According to the MoU, NTS will conduct tests for the appointment of teachers and other staff in the education department on merit for three years and testing centres would be set up at district level n to do this. Under the recruitment policy 2016,all appointments from Grade-1 up to Grade-16 would be made through NTS tests to ensure merit in the education department.

AJK Secretary Education Irshad Ahmed Qurashi said that education is mainly focused around the world and we will not compromise on merit and all teaching staff would be recruited through NTS test system for the transparency in education department and its improvement. Qurashi said that despite the fact, the literacy rate is high in AJK, there is still much room for improvement.

He added that the devastated earthquake 2005, some 1,500 schools were partially or completely destroyed, causing great losses such as basic educational infrastructure, but despite this, we have also been confronting the challenge of recruitment of teachers on merit. NTS Chief Executive Khan said that we are proud to take responsibility of the teachers on merit in Azad Kashmir. He observed that NTS has the capacity of recruiting more than 3,000 professors, and assistant professors, with the potential of 77 disciplines he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2016.