FDE short of teachers, even for online classes
There is a severe shortage of teachers in the federal government educational institutions, Federal Directorate of Education Director General Ikram Ali Malik said on Monday.
The teachers’ shortage has started to affect even the online education, Malik said, adding that new teachers cannot be recruited as long as cases are pending in courts.
Ministry of Federal Education and Vocational Training had tried to hire teachers on regular basis in 2019. However, the protesting contractual teachers took the issue to Islamabad High Court (IHC) filing a contempt plea against the ministry for going against court orders to regularise their services and instead hiring more teachers.
Malik said that the dearth of science teachers has intensified in 423 government educational institutions in the federal capital, he said. In some schools Arabic teachers have been assigned duties to teach science and English.
Officially, there are over 3,000 vacancies for teachers in federal government schools within the Islamabad Capital Territory. However, due to stay orders issued by higher judiciary in various cases, the FDE could not make new appoints, Malik said.
Regular teachers have not been hired in FDE institutions over the past decade, creating a shortage of instructors. There is a shortage of non-teaching and administrative staff as well.
Sources in the federal education ministry said that the secretary has written several letters to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) in this regard, asking the commission to implement the court’s order and regularise services of contractual employees.
“However, the bureaucracy in FPSC following the ‘babu’ mentality is raising the same questions IHC had discussed in detail,” a senior official of the education ministry said while requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
IHC had reviewed the issues of quota, advertisements for hiring these employees, their appointment letters and all other matters before directing FPSC to regularise their services under Section 11.
Sources further said that before IHC’s directives, the FPSC had summoned contractual employees in person to check their documents and conduct individual interviews and tests. FPSC returned the files of the teachers with its determinations.
However, this time, despite IHC orders, FPSC is taking longer than usual, sources said.
FDE DG Malik said cases for regularisation of contractual employees have not been resolved, hence new teachers could not be hired.
“We realise the issues the students are facing due to shortage educators,” Malik said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2020.