Extra duties deplete teaching resource

Census, exam duties exacerbate school staff shortage

LAHORE:

The Punjab School Education Department faces a challenge of starting the new academic year on Saturday with a shortage of around 200,000 teachers.

According to sources, the department has demanded the services of around 50,000 schoolteachers to supervise exams in the province, while another 50,000 teachers are already engaged in census duties.

There is already a shortage of around 100,000 schoolteachers in the province due to lack of recruitment in recent years.

The school education department has asked the chief executive officers concerned in all districts to provide human resource for conducting the matriculation and intermediate exams across Punjab.

The matriculation exams as well as the new academic year are scheduled to begin on April 1.

Officials in the department told The Express Tribune that around 50,000 schoolteachers would be engaged for the duties at the examination centres across the province.

A senior official of the Punjab School Education Department said the administrators and headmasters of the institutions were declaring their inability in resuming the academic activities because of staff shortage.

There was already a shortage of around 100,000 schoolteachers. Since last month, 50,000 teachers of government schools in the province are engaged in census duties.

The official wondered how the schools would be able to start the new academic year despite an estimated shortage of 200,000 teachers due to vacant posts as well as the exam and census duties.

“There are hundreds of schools in Punjab where only two or three teachers are serving.

When the department will acquire the services of half of the staff for census and exams duties then who will teach in the new academic year,” the official said.

He said the children from poor families were affected the most by the shortage of teachers in the government schools.

The official said a large number of textbooks had also not been printed for free distribution among the students.

He said the higher authorities had not taken notice of the situation faced by the government schools.

A leader of the Punjab Teachers Union said there would be a severe shortage of teachers and textbooks at the beginning of the academic year.

The teachers serving i. the schools will face the most stressful situation when the academic activities begin this week.

He said the government should intervene to find a solution. for the teachers and students of the government schools.

He pointed out that the schools had also been given a target to increase the number of enrolled students despite the lack of resources.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2023.