K-P govt under fire for ad-hoc teachers

PESHAWAR: Some 25,000 teachers who were appointed for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa schools and cannot be transferred elsewhere have been working on ad-hoc basis in violation of the Pakistan Civil Services Rules.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government appointed the teachers through National Testing Service (NTS). According to the Pakistan Civil Services Rules, a government servant can be appointed on the ad-hoc basis for only one year.

Talking to The Express Tribune, All Cadres NTS Teachers Association president Abdul Wakeel, criticising the ad-hoc policy of the PTI government, said: “Hiring in BPS-12 to BPS 15 grades on the ad-hoc basis violates the civil services rules.”

The president claimed that the issue has relatively affected the pedagogical activities of schools, because teachers have been highly concerned about their permanent status that has been denied to them by the provincial government.

The K-P government had introduced a new recruitment policy in 2014 with the title “School-Based Appointments” under which a teacher appointed in a government school would not be transferred till his retirement. Because of this, these teachers have not gotten increments for the last three years.

Wakeel apprehended that the government would again adopt the same ad-hoc policy in the education sector and hire more ad-hoc teachers.

“Without facilitating these teachers or denying them job security, the education sector cannot progress,” he said..

Meanwhile, talking to The Express Tribune, a K-P elementary and secondary education official on the condition of anonymity said: “Almost all schools in K-P have been facing a shortage of teachers and to overcome it the government hired around 25,000 teachers - both male and female.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2017.