Minister promises to get TEVTA staff their salaries
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Caretaker Minister for Revenue, Industries, Commerce and Technical Education Adnan Jalil Sunday expressed his sorrow over the stoppage of funds and salaries of the employees of Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) for several months.
He assured that he would make sincere efforts for the earliest release of funds and staff salaries.
However, he clarified that instead of becoming a burden on the public exchequer, TEVTA must become a profitable and self-sustaining entity, depending on the hard work of its own staff.
He was addressing a briefing on TEVTA performance at Civil Secretariat Peshawar.
TEVTA managing director Prof Abdul Ghaffar informed the meeting that 106 technical education and vocational training centers are working across the province under TEVTA, in which thousands of male and female students are provided technical education and training every year.
Appreciating TEVTA’s overall performance and role, the caretaker minister said that the bright future of a nation is closely tied to technical education, and that many counties have achieved prosperity and development by placing emphasis on it.
However, he said, organizations like TEVTA could only emerge triumphant when their outcomes and benefits outweigh the cost incurred on them.
Unfortunately, he noted, the wheel of progress is also spinning in reverse in this area, just like in numerous other fields. He expressed regret that TEVTA was expected to ensure employment for its young graduates as per the market demand, but the situation would be vastly different if it began to track the employment data of its students in relevant fields.
Many young people and their parents are facing the consequences of unemployment, which highlights the need for this data collection and analysis.
Adnan Jalil said that an institution could only move forward whose teaching and administrative staff proves cost effective.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2023.