Teachers in the dark about promotions

The bureaucratic delays in Sindh government have cost teachers of government colleges their promotions, sources in the education department claim. The promotions of teachers to professor grade have been pegged to personal preferences of top hierarchy of the provincial government, rather than the fabled 'rule of merit', sources told The Express Tribune.

Nearly 40 male and female teachers of the government colleges are awaiting their promotions to Grade 20 for the past year, yet, some officers in the Services and General Administration and Coordination Department (SGA & CD) keep creating hindrances in the process, they said. The services wing of the SGA&CD controls the transfer and posting of the government officials; promotion cases of the officials and matters relating to retirement.

The particular department keeps returning the seniority list of the teachers concerned to the College Education Department after raising objections over various reasons. Thus, the promotion matter of the teachers is not presented in the meeting of the board responsible for deciding the promotion matters, sources said. They claimed that a section officer of the SGA&CD is creating hurdles in the promotions because contrary to the merit, he wishes to add such names of the teachers, who are ineligible for promotion to Grade 20 as per the seniority list.

Their promotion for the post of associate professor in Grade-19 was also not done on merit, sources claimed. A former college controller awaiting promotion told The Express Tribune that the Regional Directorate Karachi had sent their cases along with annual confidential report (ACR) several months back to the director-general, and from there they had been dispatched to the concerned department of the Sindh government.

The concerned department however returned the promotion cases, asking to make the claims. The list was sent again after making the claims, after which they required provisional lists. Later, they asked to furnish the claims for review. It was learnt that on the basis of the claim, the department, in violation of the merit, wants to add a few teachers of Jacobabad to the seniority list but has not succeeded yet, sources said.

It is due to this reason that no progress on the promotion matter has been made. The seniority list includes associate professors of history, Sindhi, Urdu, Commerce, Islamic Studies, Pakistan Studies including various subject teachers, awaiting their promotions to become professors.