Schools dept stops teachers’ hiring

Govt had approved decision to fill one-fourth of 100k vacant posts last month

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has cancelled a plan to recruit around 25,000 schoolteachers, disappointing thousands of graduates who were planning to apply for the jobs.

The provincial school education department issued a notification of the cancellation of the ‘expression of interest’ of a firm that was set to be hired to conduct the recruitment test. Teachers serving in the schools also expressed disappointment over the decision to stop the recruitment.

The government had promised to overcome the shortage of teachers in its schools in all districts of the province by recruiting 25,000 schoolteachers.

A committee had also approved last month the decision to recruit the teachers, while young graduates in the province were preparing for the tests and waiting for an advertisement in this connection. Groups of teachers and youths had been discussing on the social media the likely test schedule and recruitment criteria while demanding an early announcement in this regard. A large number of unemployed youth had also pinned their hopes on the major recruitment initiative.

A teacher said the previous government had not recruited staff for the schools despite demands from the teachers since the first year of its tenure.

It is estimated that there is a shortage of around 100,000 teachers and the administrators of the government schools across the province are facing problems in carrying on the academic activities with the help of the existing staff.

Teachers and parents have expressed concern over the impact of the teachers’ shortage on the education and results of the students,

“The decision of cancellation of the recruitment process is disheartening for the young graduates as we had been waiting for years for such an employment opportunity,” a youth, Teheen Ahmed, said while speaking to The Express Tribune. He said the decision would have the worst effect on the graduates who were nearing the age limit for government jobs.

“It was our top demand that teachers’ recruitment should be started as the government had ignored the issue despite thousands of jobless youth waiting for an opportunity to join the profession,” Punjab Teachers Union general secretary Rana Liaqat Ali said.

He said government schoolteachers were also engaged in various other duties despite their shortage.

“There are a number of schools where two or three teachers are teaching all students. The teachers remain under pressure to complete the academic schedule at all cost” he added.

A former president of the union, Allah Rakha Gujjar, complained that the former government had disappointed the teachers’ community as a result of the failure of its planned related to the sector. He said the cancellation of the decision for the recruitment had proved that the teachers were not a priority of the government. When contacted, a senior official of the Punjab School Education Department said the authorities were planning to prepare a new proposal in connection with teachers’ recruitment in the province.

However, the official conceded that there was no plan to recruit the teachers in the near future.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2023.