Analysis: Last-minute recruitment, not-so-bright minds
The present recruitment system is designed to recruit an incompetent lot.
Our dilemma is not a lack of resources — it is the billion of rupees being wasted in unskilled, non-working teacher salaries and their pensions. PHOTO: FILE
A fresh round of recruitment of female teachers for colleges across the province is being carried out by the Sindh Public Service Commission.
Let’s put aside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) ban on last-minute recruitment by the government and look at this issue objectively.
When elections are round the corner, why does the government find it necessary to carry out such an exercise given that college academic sessions across the province will officially start from August 1 or later and regular instruction will not be possible till at least October?
The whole exercise of recruiting these new teachers begets many crucial questions. When will these newly hired teachers go to work — right now in the middle of the annual curriculum or in August when the new session starts?
If they are to take on their duties at a later stage – which technically makes sense – then is it not better for the new government after elections to do this hiring?
On the other hand, if they are to be placed immediately in the system, then what is the rationale of this new wave of recruitment given that classes will end mid-March for examination preparation and the actual new teaching session starts in August?
Now let’s introduce the ECP’s ban on these fresh recruitments which it claimed are tantamount to pre-poll rigging.
Does the public not need to know why the national exchequer is being depleted in the name of recruitment and new jobs when they are counterproductive to the original cause of education?
Having spent almost 40 years in teaching, I have come to a highly pessimistic conclusion: No matter what we may claim, education has not been a matter of importance for us politically or culturally.
Since the education department in the public sector has the capacity and potential to absorb a large number of job seekers, all governments – past or present – have continued to fix their eyes on controlling this department. It seems ludicrous that in the absence of any meaningful teaching-learning process in these government-owned institutions, teacher recruitment on a mass scale continues to takes place each year.
The public has a legitimate right to know why a huge amount of national money is being wasted when it is not utilised purposefully.
A teacher’s ability to teach effectively, absenteeism and a three-hour work day routine is never debated publically. And this has never really been on the agenda of the committee on education in Sindh’s provincial assembly.
The present recruitment system is designed to recruit an incompetent lot. Unfortunately too many are teaching subjects in which they have not been adequately qualified or trained.
Nobody should expect great math and science minds to emerge from a classroom where the teacher does not have specific training for that subject.
The system favours the corrupt and inefficient, therefore political parties find it easier and convenient to please their cronies — essentially giving them Rs35,000 a month in grade 17 jobs (22 being the highest) for literally doing nothing.
Our dilemma is not a lack of resources — it is the billion of rupees being wasted in unskilled, non-working teacher salaries and their pensions.
It seems we have strange ways of doing things in this ‘Empire of Illusions’.
The writer is principal of Sir Adamjee Institute
Published in The Express Tribune, February 8th, 2013.