Teachers dismayed at delay in promotions

Teachers of the Federal Government Colleges have expressed their displeasure over the undue delay in their promotions.

According to an official source, the promotion of assistant professors of the Federal Government Colleges was being delayed as the meeting of the Departmental Selection Board (DSB) has not been convened after a lapse of over one year.

The last meeting of DSB for FG Colleges’ teachers was held on March 5, 2021. After that, two meetings were held but the promotion cases of FG colleges’ teachers were turned down while the teachers of other setups under the Federal Directorate of Education got promotions.

An assistant professor at the Islamabad Model College for Girls (Postgraduate) F-7/2 on the condition of anonymity said, “The promotion meetings for other setups are convened timely and promotions granted except for the promotion of FG colleges’ teachers which is a discriminatory act. The authorities are keeping a mum on the issue and no policy has been framed for promotion of assistant professors of FG set up so far.”.

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Federal Government College Teachers (FGCTA) President Dr Rahima Rahman said, “The promotion of assistant professors of FG colleges is being unnecessarily delayed on the one or the other pretext. There is no justification for making our teachers suffer merely on account of inaction or delay on the part of the authorities for not convening DSB. We have filed a representation in this regard which could not fetch any result. Such a policy of the authorities has mounted the anxiety among the FG community because, on account of delay in convening the meeting of DSB, they lost their promotion which resulted in financial loss to them and a massive setback.”

She further said: "If assistant professors are promoted to the rank of associate professors, it will have a trickle-down effect. Lecturers will be promoted and they will occupy the vacant seats of assistant professors. Justice and fair play demand that teachers should not be made to suffer on account of the delay on the part of authorities in convening the meeting of DSB".

FGCTA Joint Secretary Anum Kaleem said, “Teachers are the backbone of the entire education set up and they should immediately be promoted. The meeting to award time scale is also due for a long time. Teachers should not be made to suffer merely on account of departmental lapse of holding the meeting of time scale," she said while demanding an early convening of time scale meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2022.