Teachers’ shortage hits college sector

The 790 public sector colleges in Punjab are facing a shortage of around 8,000 teachers, leading to difficulties in completing the courses in time for a large number of students, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to sources in the provincial higher education department, there are 24,800 approved posts of college teachers in all districts of Punjab but only 16,900 lecturers and professors are serving in the institutions.

In around one-third of the government colleges across the province, only up to five teachers are running the academic affairs, leaving the students mostly at the mercy of private academies to complete their courses.

Besides the remote districts, even the provincial capital is facing a shortage of college teachers with around 700 posts vacant in Lahore division.

In addition to the students facing problems in their education, the serving teachers and their associations have also been complaining of excessive workload and calling for early recruitment to fill the vacant posts.

They fear the future of thousands of college students is at stake because of the significant shortage of teachers of almost all subjects.

The shortage of thousands of teachers has hit the academic activities and especially thousands of students doing FSc pre-medical and pre-engineering, bachelors and studying computer science are reportedly facing problems in completing their courses for the examinations.

A student said failure of the authorities concerned to address the situation would also ultimately affect the results of the colleges in the annual examinations.

Although the students in the big cities have the facility of coaching centres to make up for the deficiency in their education in the colleges, they have to pay heavy fees for the academic help and a large proportion of them are unable to afford it.

On the other hand, the students from the remote areas and those belonging to families unable to afford the additional educational expenses are entirely dependent on the government college teachers for their future.

“It is painful that thousands of students from villages come to the colleges in the towns on public transport and bicycles and for studying but they are not taught adequately because of the prevailing shortage of teachers,” a college professor, Muhammd Waseem, said while speaking to The Express Tribune.

He said the parents of a large number of students were already finding it challenging to afford the educational expenses of their children in the government colleges.

The professor said the girl students from families facing financial constraints and those from the remote areas would be the worst affected in the exams.

"The government college sector is facing the most severe problem currently of shortage of teachers. We have repeatedly highlighted the issue at various platforms but it is a matter of concern that the process of college teachers’ recruitment has not been started in the province,” said the president of Punjab Professors and College Teachers’ Association, Professor Tariq Kaleem.

He said many teachers had informed the association that they had to carry on the academic activities in their colleges with three or four staff members The situation is bound to affect the education as well as the results of the students.

Professor Kaleem asaid the provincial government should take steps to recruit the teachers at the earliest in view of the importance of the matter for the future of a large number of students.

An official of the Punjab Higher Education Department said a similar situation had been persisting in te government colleges of the province for the past several years.

He said the department had ben managing the situation by appointing hundreds of lecturers on an ad hoc basis through a college teachers’ internship programme. However, this year the recruitment has not been done apparently because of the prevailing political instability in the province.

The official said the department was awaiting instructions form the provincial government to begin the recruitment process and was hopeful for positive development in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2022.