Crackdown on unregistered schools halted

Punjab education ministry directs district education heads to expedite registration process

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: Punjab education authorities have stopped officials from taking any action against schools who have submitted their registration applications while district education heads have been directed to speed up the process of registering private schools.

This has been directed by the Punjab Education Ministry which has instructed officials to ensure that the entire registration process is transparent while all officials responsible w9ll be held accountable if any irregularity was found.

Previously, the education ministry had announced to seal all unregistered schools by the middle of April. However, that decision has been suspended after strong resistance put up by private schools. The ministry has further decided to prepare and approve a bill for creating the Private Education Regulatory Authority (PERA).

All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association President Abrar Ahmed Khan on Wednesday said that they will support all positive measures proposed by the authorities.

However, he reminded that private schools enrol more students than government schools, therefore no action against them will be tolerated.

Rules for online transfer of teachers

The Punjab government has issued a new set of rules and regulations to be followed for the online transfer of teachers.

As per the new policy, only teachers who have completed at least three years in the same seat will be eligible for transfers.  Moreover, science teachers will not be transferred to posts of language teachers and vice versa.

Further, if the teacher is the only Senior School Teacher (SST) of a particular subject in the school, the transfer will not be green-lighted until an alternative teacher is available. The computer teachers will be transferred to only those schools which have a computer lab.

Primary School Teachers (PST) will be allowed to swap transfers with Elementary School Teachers (EST). The inter-district transfers will be completed on vacant seats.

The female teachers will be eligible for transfers in boys’ primary schools, but male teachers will not be transferred to girls’ schools.

A disability certificate will be necessary to claim disability transfers while in case of marriage, only female teachers would be allowed to seek a transfer into the district their husband lives.

In the event of mutual transfers, teachers will need to reach an agreement between themselves, however, this will not be applicable if the remaining period of a teacher is less than a year.

All transfer applications will be filed online while every teacher will have a separate login ID. General transfers will be made once a year, however, special transfers such as marriage, death, divorce etc could be availed at any time.

Teachers’ organizations have termed these rules as strict. Punjab SES Teachers Association President Shafiq Bhalwalia has called for relaxing the rules.

UN to help plug teacher gaps

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will help overcome the shortage of teachers in government institutions.

This was stated by UNESCO Programme Officer Sameer Luqman during a convention of principals from the Nilore sector organized by the Taleem Foundation. The event was organized after completion of the first phase of admission of out-of-school children.

He said that the Nilore sector had exceeded its enrollment target. Education Officer Aleema Khan said that the role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in admissions cannot be ignored.

Muhammad Siddique, the project manager for the foundation, assured that they will provide feeder teachers to the schools facing a shortage.

School structure

The Rawalpindi district administration has created a comprehensive plan to improve the structure of government educational institutions by asking university students to provide their services to educate children as per modern methods. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2019.