LAHORE:
Around 44,000 government school teachers in Punjab have been abolished.
According to sources from the Punjab School Education Department, the subcontracting of schools is the reason for abolishing the positions, since it now depends on private owners hire according to their policy.
On the other hand, teachers say that such decision would result in an increase in unemployment among young people in the province.
The sources said the department had decided to abolish more than 44,000 posts of teachers and employees in the government schools of the province. The decision comes at a time when thousands of young graduates expected recruitment in government schools.
The recruitment was last carried out in 2018. Teacher unions have repeatedly demanded recruitment to fill vacancies over the past seven years, but governments ignored their demand.
Government schools faced serious problems due to the shortage of around 100,000 teachers.
The fact of not filling vacancies not only affected the education of a large number of students, but also caused discouragement among unemployed young people. “The Punjab School Education Department has decided to abolish around 44,000 positions and transfer to the teachers of the subcontracted schools to other institutions,” said a senior official. About 15 percent of positions have been abolished in the school education sector, including, including, according to the available data, 43,960 positions in subcontracted schools.
Around 10,000 schools in the province have been subcontracted so far and the decision has communicated to the Department of School Education and the educational authorities in all districts, said the official.
Authorities were informed that recruitment for subcontracted schools and teachers should be considered abolished.
An Mphil student, Ammara Rasheed, said while talking with the Express PAkGazette, described the decision to abolish the positions of shocking teachers. “We had hopes in the recruitment of teachers for a long time to be employed,” he said.
She said that a large number of qualified young people had crossed the age limit for recruitment during the last seven years.
However, the spokesman of the provincial Ministry of Education, Noorul Huda, said that those who had assumed control of the subcontracted schools would recruit their teachers and the positions had not been abolished.
