Punjab faces 90k teachers shortage

Academic year to begin on August 1 after summer vacations

LAHORE:

Punjab School Education Department is facing a shortage of around 90,000 teachers across the province ahead of the new academic year.

There are also dozens of schools in the province without headmasters, headmistresses and senior science teachers and the problem may jeopardise the education of a large number of students.

On the other hand, the government could not complete the recruitment of 16,000 schoolteachers due to the ongoing political instability.

“Shortage of schoolteachers is a major problem at this time and the authorities in the school education department are concerned over the situation because the new academic session is starting one week later. We are facing a shortage of around 90,000 teachers in government primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary schools in all districts of Punjab,” a senior official of Punjab School Education Department told The Express Tribune.

The new academic year in the province will begin on August 1 after the conclusion of summer vacations but hundreds of schools are facing staff shortage.

Representatives of teachers had raised voice for recruitment on the vacant posts during the two-month vacations, but the issue has not yet been resolved.

“Thousands of schoolteachers in Punjab have been promoted to higher posts, while thousands of others retired during the past year, but recruitment was not done to replace them,” the school education department official elaborated.

He said the problem was more serious in schools where senior science teachers had retired and the students were unable to clear the subject without qualified tutors. Hundreds of the posts are vacant.

The previous provincial government had announced a plan to recruit 30,000 teachers in government schools. The government planned to recruit 16,000 teachers in the first phase, but the process could not be completed.

“After the removal of the PTI government, the PML-N government also did not begin the work for recruiting the 16,000 teachers. We were expecting that the recruitment would be completed during the summer vacations, but political instability during the past two months did not give time to the government to start the process,” the official said.

Now the academic year will begin amid a severe shortage of teachers.

Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) president Allah Rakha Gujjar said, “Teachers of government schools are also engaged in various duties, adding to their workload amid a staff shortage.”

He said thousands of youths in the province were jobless and a number of them might pass the age limit for applicants during the prolonged delay in the recruitment process.

He said the academic activities in the schools across the province were set to resume within a few days.

PTU secretary general Rana Liaqat Ali said the government should begin the recruitment of 16,000 schoolteachers in the province at the earliest. He said the students of government schools would be affected because of the situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2022.