Teachers demand regularisation

FDE fails to send summary to FPSC for conducting interviews

ISLAMABAD:

A large number of daily wage teachers in basic pay-scale (BPS) 16 and 17 could not be regularised as the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has failed to send a summary to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) — which had conducted their written test in July 2021 — for interviews.

In 2018, the Supreme Court by upholding the decision of the Islamabad High Court ordered the regularisation of all daily-wage workers including teachers after due process including the screening by the FPSC. The apex court had also ordered to carry out the process in 90 days, however, the FDE half-heartedly implemented the court order in 2021 and sent the names of the teachers to the FPSC for the test in 2021.

The FPSC after conducting the test had shortlisted the names and sent the summary to the federal education ministry with a recommendation to call the shortlisted candidates for interviews. Neither the federal education ministry nor the FDE has moved a summary to the FPSC to conduct interviews of these teachers, who have been rendering their services as daily wagers for the last over 13 years.

The cases of teachers and non-teaching staff working in BPS-15 and below were sent to the federal cabinet while those of BPS-16 and 17 were referred to the FPSC.

The daily-wage and contractual employees, who have been working in the FDE for the past 13 years, have been demanding that the government act on orders of the apex court and immediately regularise their services. They have also been demanding the release of salaries since the beginning of their services.

Despite the orders of the Supreme Court, employees of the federal government’s educational institutions could not be regularised. The FPSC has not yet started interviews of the teachers even after a year of conducting the test. The federal cabinet has also completely shown silence on the fate of the daily wage employees working in BPS-15 and below.

Surprisingly, the education ministry and FDE officials have also shown the least interest in pursuing the case.

Some daily wager teachers said that they were now considering filing a “contempt of court” petition against the education officials for the inordinate delay in the regularisation of their jobs.

Sources said that the FPSC conducted the written examination of teachers on 31 July 2021 and it has provided a list of the teachers who had cleared the exams to the education ministry, which has been lingering the issue for over a year.

Sources said that owing to the indifference of the federal education authorities, interviews of the eligible teachers were being delayed. A senior official at the FDE said on the condition of anonymity that they had sent the case to the FPSC for conducting the written test, however, after that no correspondence has taken place for interviews of these daily wage teachers.

The daily wage teachers who have passed the test said that FDE and education ministry officials were ignoring the court orders. They said that they were considering knocking on the door of the court for justice.

Earlier, the Khursheed Shah-led committee regularised the services of scores of employees up to grade-9 without any competitive examination. “We appeared in the test despite discrimination, but the extraordinary delay is beyond comprehension,” the daily wage teachers said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2022.