20,000 teachers await transfer
The Punjab School Education Department has failed to complete the annual process of transferring teachers among the institutions during the summer vacations.
According to sources in the department, around 20,000 teachers are awaiting transfer orders across the province due to various reasons.
The department was supposed to complete the transfers during the vacations and the schools are scheduled to reopen on August 21.
The teachers who have not received the transfer letters are facing uncertainty.
The school education department carries out transfer of teachers every year and the process was completed during the summer vacations in the past so that the academic activities in the schools should not suffer.
This year, the process was started last month.
However, with four days remaining of the summer vaccinations, the teachers' transfer orders have not been issued in any district.
All private schools in Punjab reopened on Wednesday after the summer vaccinations, while preparations are under way for reopening the government schools.
The educational institutions had remained closed for the vacations for 10 weeks.
The sources told The Express Tribune that around 20,000 teachers of primary, secondary and higher secondary schools had applied for transfer this year.
A new system of e-transfer facility has been introduced this year for online processing of the cases divided in various categories, including those related to promotion, divorce, demise of husband, marriage, disability, medical grounds, mutual exchange and open merit.
However, the transfers in all the categories have been delayed.
A government schoolteacher, Nosheen Khan, said the teachers awaiting the transfer orders were confused as to where they would serve with only a few days left before the schools reopen.
She said the worst effect of the delay would be upon the women teachers who had been divorced or widowed and had sought to return to the areas of their families.
Punjab Teachers Union general secretary Rana Liaqat Ali said he expected that the government would begin sending
the transfer letters this week.
He said the transfers were also required to ease the impact of a shortage of thousands of teachers in schools across the province.
On the other hand, a senior official said the school education department had been involved in celebration of the Independence Day in the institutions, which had resulted in slowing down the transfers process.
He said the department had completed work on the verification and addressing appeals of teachers regarding their transfer.
He said the dispatch of the transfer letters would be begun soon and all the teachers concerned would receive them in the coming days.
However, the transferred teachers may have to perform election duties at places assigned by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2023.