Teachers’ hiring; Over 700,000 applicants still waiting for response

Karachi, Over 700,000 ambitious teachers who had applied to the Sindh Education and Literacy Department six months ago for around 18,248 teaching posts in primary, junior and high schools still awaiting for response.

The vacancies in education department were advertised in April, with May 20 as the deadline which was extended by a month. By May 20, the education department had received about over 200,000 applications, said an education official. By June 20 more than 700, 000 applications were obtained by the education department. The processing fee was initially set at Rs300 but the provincial education minister reduced it up to just Rs30.

For conducting the written test of the teachers, the reform support unit (RSU) of the education department had invited proposals from various agencies. The top two proposals were Sukkur IBA and the National Testing System. In early September, the RSU officials had said that they were in the process of negotiating finances and other matters of the deal with the top two bidders and it would be finalised by the end of the month. However, the matter still hasn’t been resolved and the education department has yet to get back to any of the candidates.

According to sources in the education department, whoever would be hired would be made thorugh applications and conduct the test. In the meantime, the RSU department has computerised all the applications. The unit was expected to issue appointment letters by December but now it seems that the whole process would be delayed.

A senior official at the RSU said that the unit wanted to make sure that the written test was transparent and fair and this was why there have been so many delays. In order to ensure fairness and transparency we have asked the test-conducting agency to declare the test results within 40 hours and post it online, he said.

Out of the total 18,248 teaching posts, 10,545 posts are for primary schoolteachers, 6,665 for junior schoolteachers and 1,038 for high schoolteachers.

The break-up is: In Sanghar 400 posts are vacant for teachers, 184 primary teachers, 193 junior teachers and 23 high schoolteachers.

In Kashmore there are 565 posts vacant out of which 469 primary teachers, 83 junior schoolteachers and 13 high school teachers. In Shaheed Benazirabad 2,181 posts of 1,343 primary schoolteachers, 690 junior school teachers and 168 high schoolteachers.

As many as 1,234 posts in Hyderabad are open out of which 454 are for primary schoolteachers, 628 for junior schoolteachers and 152 for high schoolteachers.

In Tando Allahyar 220 posts of 82 primary schoolteachers, 128 junior schoolteachers and 10 high schoolteachers.

In Jamshoro 402 posts of 215 primary schoolteachers, 172 junior schoolteachers and 15 high schoolteachers.

In Jacobabad 391 posts of 185 primary schoolteachers, 106 junior schoolteachers and 100 high schoolteachers.

In Umerkot 1,228 posts of 925 primary teachers, 403 junior schoolteachers and three high schoolteachers.

In Mirpurkhas a total of 735 posts of 419 primary teachers, 303 junior schoolteachers and 13 high schoolteachers.

In Khairpur 1,795 posts of 917 primary teachers, 742 junior teachers and 136 high schoolteachers.

In Tharparkar 2,061 posts of 1,633 primary teachers, 360 junior teachers and 68 high schoolteachers.

In Matiari 293 posts of 151 primary teachers, 128 junior teachers and 24 high schoolteachers. In Ghotki a total of 744 posts of
524 primary teachers, 163 junior teachers and 57 high schoolteachers.

In Sukkur 821 posts of 146 primary teachers, 506 junior teachers and 169 high schoolteachers. In Karachi a total of 2,995 posts of 1,057 primary teachers, 2,668 junior schoolteachers and 79 high schoolteachers.

In Dadu a total of 624 posts of 460 primary teachers, 104 junior teachers and 58 high schoolteachers.

In Thatta 1,168 posts of 657 primary teachers, 493 junior teachers and 18 high schoolteachers.

In Badin total 1,235 posts of 750 primary teachers, 405 junior teachers and 80 high schoolteachers.

In Qambar-Shahdadkot a total of 741 posts of 444 primary teachers, 250 junior teachers and 47 high schoolteachers.
In Larkana 1,240 posts of 988 primary teachers, 189 junior teachers and 83 high schoolteachers.

In Naushahro Feroze 1,063 posts of 702 primary teachers, 275 junior teachers and 86 high schoolteachers.

The candidates applied to the education department for the posts under a 300-million-dollar project funded by the World Bank.