Teaching posts in Pindi: Number of applicants falls drastically

Officials blame the requirement of F.Sc for the mild interest.

RAWALPINDI:

In science versus humanities, when science won the district education office found the pool of potential teachers shrinking by an alarming percent.

Since the Punjab education department made it mandatory for candidates applying to become teachers to have studied science at the intermediate level, just above 2,000 interested candidates were eligible to apply for 1,370 posts in Rawalpindi district.

Normally the department receives around 5,000 to 6,000 applications for the post, according to officials in the education department.

They blamed the low number of applicants solely on the new eligibility criteria, which only allows candidates with F.Sc certificates to apply.

The candidates had ample time to apply as the posts were advertised on November 20 and they had until December 7 to send in their applications, officials said.

Some simply do not understand the logic behind the requirement, as people having done their bachelors in humanities, provided they have an F.Sc certificate, are eligible for the posts. “Disallowing candidates with FA’s is discriminatory. Most people interested in applying from Rawalpindi can no longer apply to public sector jobs,” said Nasrullah Khan, a high school teacher.

Others wonder if this new requirement means that candidates with qualifications in humanities will forever be barred from applying to jobs in the education department. “[It seems] my qualifications have become useless,” said a candidate.

A senior official of the education department told The Express Tribune that there are many public schools and colleges that do not offer science subjects at the intermediate level. People living nearby have little choice but to study humanities, he said.

Asking not to be named, the official gave the example of Kotli Sattian, a town where no government institution offers F.Sc. “How will the government get teachers for [schools and colleges] in Kotli Sattian,” he said.

Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Director Colleges Rawalpindi division, said such decisions are made at higher levels. However, he added the only rationale behind the decision could be that the government wants to give more importance to science and turn around the science-humanities graduates’ ratio. Right now, 70% of all candidates who clear intermediate, do so in humanities, according to a board official.

Rawalpindi District Coordination Officer Saqib Zaffar, chairperson of the district recruitment committee, said they had nothing to say about the decision as it was made by the education department. However he added, without giving exact numbers, that the committee had received less applications than the vacant posts they had expected to fill in the district.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2011.