FPSC gets over 500 teacher cases for regularisation

Commission yet to decide whether to hold tests or just interviews

ISLAMABAD: The government has finally sent over 500 cases of contractual teachers working in the federal government educational institutions to the public service commission for their regularisation.

The measure has been taken in light of orders from the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Sources said that the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) has started scrutinising the documents sent over by the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training. The commission will determine the eligibility of the contractual employees under the rules relating to ‘one candidate on a seat’.

Sources in the ministry said that Joint Secretary Umar Javed had signed all relevant documents required for attestation as per the requirements of the FPSC.

A total of 555 cases will be referred to the FPSC. Of these, 303 belong to educators who have been employed in basic pay scale (BPS) grade 17 while the remaining 252 teachers are of BPS-16. All these teachers had been serving in federal government institutions for over a decade on a contractual basis.

Earlier, the IHC divisional bench had ordered the government in June 2008 to make all contractual teachers permanent. However, the government challenged the decision in the Supreme Court (SC). But, the apex court turned down the government’s plea and upheld the IHC’s decision in March 2019.

Nevertheless, the matter remained mired in the documentation for over a year even after the court’s orders.

Subsequently, sources in FPSC told The Express Tribune that the ministry had regularised many teachers under similar rules in the past as well.

The commission will now issue directions to the education ministry to regularise daily-wage employees. However, FPSC officials have yet to choose whether to check the eligibility of teachers through a test or just through interviews.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2020.