SED halts transfers of teachers as part of election preperation

All DEAs and CEOs have been instructed to not issue any transfer orders until training is over

LAHORE: Schoolteachers in Punjab, whose applications are under process at the Punjab School Education Department (SED), will have to wait for their transfers longer as the department has halted the process due to the ongoing preparations for the general elections.

All District Education Authorities (DEAs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have been instructed to not issue any transfer orders as the teachers being deputed for the elections duties have been undergoing training. However, the process of scrutiny for the transfers would be continued by the department.

The CEOs have been informed that because of the election training for teachers had been in progress in all districts, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) authorities had shown their serious concern over mass transfers of teachers at this point in. The CEOs are told to complete the process of scrutiny of transfer applications before issuance of transfer orders. However, no transfer order shall be issued till further instructions of the department.



SED Secretary Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik confirmed the development and said that the process would be started again after the training by the ECP. As many as 50,000 teachers would have to wait because of the decision as they cannot get themselves transferred.

Punjab Teachers' Union (PTU) General Secretary Rana Liaquat Ali said that after around one and a half years, the teachers had been given a chance to get themselves transferred as the general ban had been lifted. "Because of this decision, thousands of teachers will have to wait. Female teachers will be the most affected, as many who have been married during the period of the transfer ban and their married life is being affected will have to wait further," he added.



He said that there were up to 7,000 teachers who had applied for inter-district transfers and around 40-50,000 applications for transfers within districts. He said that teachers were uneasy because of the decision, as many waited for a long time to get transferred to their hometown.

Earlier, the SED had postponed its School Leadership Development Programme under the Quaid-i-Azam Academy for Educational Development (QAED) because of the election training of teachers in Punjab. The training was overlapping with the orientation sessions by the ECP for Assistant Presiding Officers and polling officers from April 23 to May 12. A notification in this regard read, "Keeping in view the training by the ECP, the training schedule issued by the SED for School Leadership Development Programme is hereby withdrawn. The new schedule will be communicated subsequently."

The ban on transfers was earlier lifted in 2016 and in March, the SED again lifted the ban and scheduled the application process from April 1 to May 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2018.