An integral part of formal education involves the teachers calling out names to mark the attendance of the enrolled students. However, as a significant proportion of required teachers remain absent from colleges across Sindh, perhaps the students should start taking note of their instructor's attendance instead.
The matter came to the fore when the Karachi Directorate of College Education Sindh recently sent a letter to various college principals. In the letter, it was implicitly hinted that colleges facing a shortage of teachers should ensure that classes are conducted by utilizing other available teachers.
Although the letter has emphasized the importance of maintaining high-quality, uninterrupted teaching, it is unclear how designating teachers for subjects outside their domain of expertise will raise educational standards.
Documents obtained from the College Education Department indicated that there are a total of 5,477 vacancies for teachers across more than 150 government colleges in Karachi, out of which 2,360 posts are still vacant. To be precise, there are 1,359 vacancies for lecturers and 661 vacancies for assistant professors in Karachi. Similarly, 237 vacancies exist for associate professors/principals for Grade 19 while four vacancies are available for professors/principals for Grade 29, in addition to job openings for librarians and other non-teaching staff.
According to Professor Faqir Muhammad Lakho, Regional Director of College Education Karachi, apart from the shortage of teachers in colleges, a bigger problem plaguing the higher education system was the irrational distribution of teaching faculty. "Some colleges have seven or more teachers for a single subject, while others lack even one teacher for the same subject," said Lakho.
Lakho's claims were bolstered by sources of the Express Tribune, which confirmed that there were no teachers for Botany, Pakistan Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Persian, Computer Science, Physical Education and International Relations at several colleges including the Sir Syed Government Girls College.
Similarly, there were no teachers for Islamic Studies and Statistics at the Adamji Science College, which had only one teacher each for English, Computer Science and Pakistan Studies. Likewise, there were insufficient teachers for Mathematics and English at the DJ Sindh Government Science College.
Moreover, there were no teachers available to teach Pakistan Studies at the Jinnah Government College Nazimabad, which had only one teacher each for Botany and Islamic Studies, and just two teachers for Commerce.
The numbers are alarming for an institution, where the enrollment in science subjects is 3,900, while 1,100 students are enrolled in Commerce, and about 400 students are enrolled in Arts. Furthermore, despite the ongoing Computer Science program at the Sirajud-Daulah College, there was a severe shortage of teachers for teaching the subject. Although the recruitment of about 1,600 new teachers at government colleges across Sindh is in its final stages, the process has been stalled due to delays in the distribution of offer letters.
Director General Colleges Sindh Dr Naveed Rab Siddiqui told The Express Tribune that Karachi's colleges were indeed facing a shortage of more than 2,200 teaching staff however, efforts were underway to appoint teachers on the basis of sanctioned new establishment (SNE). "We have sent details to the concerned department as per the requirement and the Secretary of College Education is also working on it. Since it involves finances, it is taking time. Offer letters to new teachers will be issued from the Chief Minister's House in December," claimed Dr Siddiqui.
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