As students in the federal capital gear up to head back to their colleges with the start of a new academic session, the shortage of teachers remains a pressing concern for them.
According to an official source, the posts of lecturers and assistant professors at federal government (FG) colleges under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) have been lying vacant for a long time, badly disrupting academic activities.
An associate professor at Islamabad Model College for Girls (Postgraduate) F-7/2 said it is immensely difficult to engage the huge size of classes with just one or two teachers.
He said that there was only one teacher each for the subjects of History, Education and Political Science in the college, whereas the requirement is three teachers in each of the disciplines.
The Department of Pakistan Studies has two and the Urdu department has only three teachers to teach over 1,800 students in all sections of intermediate classes. "We have been facing a vast faculty shortage for a long time, but the unconcerned and indifferent attitude of the authorities concerned is responsible for burnout of teachers, resultantly compromising on the quality of lecture delivery", the Associate Professor said.
FG Home Economics College of Management Sciences F-11 is also facing a shortage of faculty. Currently, there is no teacher in the most important subjects of English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies, while there is only one teacher for Computer and Economics. The college is also in dire need of regular faculty in the specialised subjects of Home Economics.
A teacher at Islamabad Model College for Girls Humak said the college has no regular teachers in Chemistry, Education and Sociology. Students’ strength is over 1,200 and the college is facing a severe shortage of regular faculty in the subjects of Physics, Biology, Computer Science, Islamic Studies, Psychology, Mathematics, Statistics, Pakistan Studies and Economics department.
“The FDE has recently transferred our Assistant Professor of Urdu to a model college to accommodate daily wage teachers, which is in sheer violation of the regulations,” said the teacher. “She was also working as Vice Principal and Drawing and Disbursing Officer in the college and sharing extra-teaching hours because her college was badly short of staff.”
Islamabad Model Postgraduate College H-8 is also facing a severe shortage of faculty in history, political science, English and maths, while Islamabad Model College for Boys H-9 needs faculty in the subjects of Physics, English and Computer Science.
The FDE has set a ridiculous target of 1,000 enrolments for Islamabad Model College for Girls I-14/3, considering that the college has no teachers in the subjects of Biology, Chemistry, Statistics, Economics, Education, Arabic and Civics. The college has one regular lecturer for Maths, one for Physics, one for Urdu and one for Geography.
Similarly, Islamabad Model College for Girls (Postgraduate) G-10/4 has one teacher in each subject of History, Political Science and Geography. The college will not offer the subject of Home Economics in this session because of non-availability of teachers.
Islamabad Model College for Girls, Bhara Kahu has currently one regular teacher each for the subjects of chemistry, physics, biology, computer science, Urdu, Education, maths, statistics and has no faculty in the subjects of English, Islamic Studies, Pakistan Studies and economics.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2022.
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