Hope rekindles for daily wage teachers’ regularisation

FDE asks FPSC to conduct interviews pending for over a year

ISLAMABAD:

Hope has rekindled for the regularisation of daily wage teachers working in basic pay-scale (BPS) BPS-16 and BPS-17 for the last several years as the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has asked the Federal Public Serice Commission (FPSC) to conduct interviews, pending since July 2021.

The FPSC conducted the written test of the daily wage teachers in July 2021 but since then, their interviews were pending as the FDE could not send a summary with the number of available posts for regularisation.

In a letter, the FDE as asked the federal education ministry to forward a summary to the FPSC to conduct interviews of the daily wasge teachers who had appeared in the written test as the Finance Division has assured to create “supernumerary posts” to accommodate the daily wage teachers.

The FDE said that as soon as the FPSC conducts the interviews and sends recommendations for hiring the teachers, the total number of posts will be taken up with the Finance Division for the creation of posts.

On 23, 2020, the federal education ministry sent a letter to the Finance Division with a recommendation to create 1,726 posts including posts of 590 posts of BPS-16 and BPS-17 and 1,136 posts of BPS-1 to BPS-15.

The education ministry in a letter asked the FPSC to review the fitness and qualification for the regularisation of the teachers.

In 2018, the Supreme Court by upholding the decision of the Islamabad High Court that had asked regularisation of daily-wage teachers in nine months had 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 on July 30, 2021, had shortlisted the names and sent the summary to the federal education ministry with a recommendation to call the shortlisted candidates for interviews. But the federal education ministry and the FDE failed to move 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.

Earlier, the cases of teachers and non-teaching staff working in BPS-15 and below were sent to the federal cabinet which rejected their regularisation, while those of BPS-16 and 17 were referred to the FPSC.

The FPSC had also provided a list of the teachers who had cleared the exams to the education ministry, which lingered the issue for over a year.

Sources said that owing to the indifference of the federal education authorities, interviews of the eligible teachers were delayed.

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

Sources said that a special committee headed by PPP MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhel has also taken up the regularisation of daily wage employees.

A daily-wage lecturer who passed had the FPSC examination said that the teachers were being exploited by not implementing the court orders. He said that they will also put up an application to the special committee of the National Assembly to start the interviews immediately so that their regularisation could be processed as the court had ordered to complete the process in nine months.

Sources said that the FPSC is likely to start the interviews in the next two weeks.

A daily wage naib qasid, who is working in a model college, said that the non-regularisation of their jobs despite court orders was a mockery of justice. He said that they will now take up their case in the committee headed by Qadir Mandokhel and they hoped that the issue will be resolved by the present government.

He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government’s cabinet rejected their cases unjustifiably.

In this regard, an FDE official said that they were in contact with the FPSC and as soon as recommendations were received, they will forward the number of posts to the Finance Division for immediate creation.

He further said that steps were also being taken to clear pending salaries of daily wage employees.

Earlier, the Khursheed Shah-led committee regularised the services of scores of employees up to Grade-9 without any competitive examination.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2022.