MPAs set to pass law to give 7,200 teachers permanent jobs

Their contracts expired in July, leading to protests for ‘regular’ jobs.

KARACHI: In Monday’s Sindh Assembly session, one of the items on the agenda is passing a law to give permanent jobs to 7,200 teachers on contract in the province. Last month, the governor had issued an ordinance to this effect after widespread protests.

The ‘Sindh regularisation of teachers appointed on contract basis Ordinance 2011’ states that teachers will be given permanent jobs or ‘regularised’ in government-speak, depending on their performance and qualifications. Teachers have to work in their schools for about five years and they will not be transferred before their term is over.

Primary, secondary and higher secondary school teachers were appointed on contract after testing conducted by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Sukkur and the Sindh University Testing Centre in Jamshoro from 2008 to 2009. “We qualified in the IBA test and were asked to continue the job on contract for three years,” said Khair Muhammad Ansari, a teacher and member of the teachers’ movement pressing for this agenda. “The government assured us that the jobs would continue based on their performance. But it was refused later.”

The teachers who had qualified in the IBA test were given jobs but their contracts expired after three years in July 2011. The teacher started protests and hunger strikes in different district headquarters, including Karachi. The government gave them a six-month extension. But as soon as this was over, they started to protest again.

This time the government issued an ordinance on January 31 granting their demands. “The governor issued the ordinance when the assembly was not in session,” explained the law secretary, Ghulam Nabi Shah. “According to the rules, the assembly has to adopt it in the session within three months.”

The teachers in question claim to have maintained the standard of education in their areas and said that they had made efforts to restore ‘ghost’ schools. “We asked the government to evaluate our performance before giving us permanent jobs,” said Ansari. “But the education minister did not listen to us and ordered the police to break up the protest outside the Karachi Press Club last month.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2012.