School grapples with shortage of teachers

“Eight teachers are still not showing up but regularly drawing their salaries from the government,” says Ziaul Islam.

KARACHI:

One problem that has still not been resolved at the Gul Hasan Lashari Complex (right) is a lack of teachers.

“Eight teachers are still not showing up but regularly drawing their salaries from the government,” said Ziaul Islam. The education department had appointed 11 teachers around nine months back but Islam claims that they didn’t even bother to make their way to the school to have themselves marked present.

The campus has 56 teachers, but most of them are appointed as Sindhi, Islamiyat or Urdu teachers. Though there are hardly five months left for matriculation exams, the schools do not have teachers for subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and English. “At the primary and elementary level, you can manage when an instructor can teach all subjects, but then what do you do about [the dearth of teachers] for secondary level classes?”

A few weeks ago, a young lady flanked by her guards arrived at the school in a Land Cruiser, announcing that she had been appointed as yet another Sindhi language teacher.

The campus’ programme coordinator, Rafia Khan, finds no better solution but to hire volunteers who could teach secondary-level students during the next five months. “This will at least drive a point home to our government officials.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2012.