Govt schools need 100,000 teachers

Punjab has announced plan to fill 30,000 posts

LAHORE:

Around 100,000 posts of teachers are vacant in 50,000 public sector schools in Punjab.

The shortage of staff is affecting the academic activities in government schools. Thousands of posts of headmasters and class teachers are vacant and many schools even do not have science teachers for labs.

Teachers’ unions have cautioned that the shortage of teachers may create difficulties in completing the syllabus in schools. Punjab government has announced a plan to recruit 30,000 thousand teachers in the initial phase and an important meeting in this connection will be held in the second week of December.

The provincial government is also likely to end a ban on transfers of teachers next month.

Sources in Punjab School Education Department said the shortage of 100,000 teachers had been reported in all 36 districts of the province.

The shortage is badly affecting the students as a large number of schools have no teacher of some subjects, especially those of science.

“Thousands of schools are operating without a headmaster or headmistress. How can a school perform well without an administrator? The students and their parents are worried over the situation,” n official of the department said while speaking to The Express Tribune.

He said the affected students would be unable to complete their syllabus without joining a tuition centre, whose fees were not affordable for most of the parents.

The official added that the majority of schools facing shortage of teachers were in remote districts and villages, where the children had no alternative but government schools.

“This year’s annual exams are scheduled six months later and the students have to study the subjects despite the absence of subject teachers.

We have received thousands of requests for the recruitment of teachers to film the vacant posts but we are helpless to solve the problem as only the government can recruit teachers,” the official said.

Teachers are also suffering because of the shortage of staff.

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“We have repeatedly highlighted this issue and briefed the authorities about the difficulties of students. We have a number of problems at schools but it is our top demand that the government immediately start the recruitment as all stakeholders in the education sector are facing problems due to the staff shortage in government schools,” said Rana Liaqat Ali, Secretary General of Punjab Teachers Union (PTU).

He said the teachers also had to perform additional duties during elections and on some other occasions and in such a situation there were difficulties in completing the courses. The students would ultimately suffer in the exams.

“Now the government has promised to start the recruitment but has not announced the details in this regard. It should immediately announce when the teachers’ recruitment will start so that the academic activities can be planned,” he said.

An official of the education ministry said, “The issue of shortage of teachers is in the knowledge of the ministry and we have called a meeting on December 9 in this regard. The provincial education ministry will head the meeting. We asked all district education officers to come with the details of vacant posts.”

He said the government had decided to appoint 30,000 teachers and an announcement in this regard would be made after the meeting.

The official said the government would also withdraw the policy of a ban on transfers. The participants of the meeting will set a criteria for teachers’ transfers.

“Students of science subjects, especially girls in high schools, are suffering the most due to the non-availablilty of teachers as it is difficult to study maths, chemistry and biology without teachers.

Beside this, there are also practicals for science students but laboratories in schools are closed due to the lack of teachers,” said a school teacher, Muhammad Qamer Zaman.

He said the government should recruit science teachers in the first phase.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2021.