Raising the bar: Govt proposes changes in service rules for primary schoolteachers

PESHAWAR:

The provincial government has decided to change the service rules for primary schoolteachers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and to promote them according to the ‘time-scale’ formula. Instructions in this regard have been issued to senior officials of the education department.

The time-scale formula promotes a teacher to the next grade after serving a certain number of years in the basic pay scale (BPS) grade below. The requirement for number of years spent increases as the teacher climbs the ladder.

Recommendations

Authorities have also proposed raising the eligibility criteria for primary schoolteachers. Prospective instructors would need Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees to be considered eligible. In addition, the government has recommended appointing teachers at BPS-14 instead of BPS-12, the present grade at appointment.

Other suggestions included promoting a teacher directly to BPS-16, one he or she has gained a Masters of Education degree in addition to ten years of service.

The proposal has been sent to the education department which will send it back to the government with its recommendations.

Earlier, the eligibility criteria for primary school teachers’ recruitment was a matric degree and a primary teaching certificate (PTC) which was changed by the Awami National Party-government to an intermediate degree requirement along with a PTC. The appointment scale was raised to BPS-12 at the time.

An official of the education department confirmed the government has sent them the proposal regarding the appointment criteria and time-scale promotions of teachers for their feedback. He said they would consult senior science and English teachers before providing their official input.

Promotions

The incumbent government has decided to give time-scale promotions to teachers of all cadres to avoid court cases and complexities, which have become routine. If they agree to the proposals then senior teachers should be promoted to grade BPS-17 from their present BPS-16 posts, said the official.

The total number of teachers in the province is around 123,000 with 77,000 of them working as primary school teachers. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2014.