44,000 schoolteacher posts scrapped

Transfers planned from outsourced to other depts

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LAHORE:

Around 44,000 posts of government schoolteachers across Punjab have been abolished.

According to sources in the Punjab School Education Department, outsourcing of schools is the reason of abolishing the posts as now it is up to the private owners to hire teaches according to their policy.

On the other hand, teachers say such a decision would result in increasing unemployment among youth in the province.

The sources said the department had decided to abolish more than 44,000 posts of teachers and staffers in government schools of the province. The decision comes at a time when thousands of graduate youths were waiting for recruitment in the government schools.

The recruitment were last carried out in 2018. The teachers unions have repeatedly demanded recruitment to fill the vacant posts during the past seven years but the governments ignored their demand.

Government schools faced severe problems due to to the shortage of around 100,000 teachers.

The failure to fill the vacant posts not only affected the education of a large number of students but also caused despondence among the unemployed youth. "The Punjab School Education Department has decided to abolish about 44,000 posts and to transfer teachers from the outsourced schools to other institutions," a senior official said. Around 15 per cent posts in the school education sector have been abolished, including, including, according to available data, 43,960 posts in the outsourced schools.

Around 10,000 schools in the province have been outsourced so far and the decision has been communicated to the school education department and the education authorities in all districts, the official said.

The authorities were informed that recruitment would not be done for the outsourced schools and the posts of teachers should be considered as abolished.

An MPhil student, Ammara Rasheed, said while speaking to The Express Tribune, termed the decision to abolish the posts of teachers shocking. "We had pinned hopes on the teachers recruitment for a long time for getting employed," she said.

She said a large number of qualified youths had crossed the age limit for recruitment during the past seven years.

However, provincial education ministry spokesperson Noorul Huda said those who had taken over the control of the outsourced schools would recruit their teachers and the posts had not been abolished.