Punjab government fails to adjust promoted college teachers

The Punjab government s failure to adjust 165 female college teachers after their promotion/ selection as assistant professor, despite a lapse of a couple of months, has been irking the teachers and their family members.
Earlier, the Punjab Higher Education Department had posted hundreds of teachers, both male and female, after their promotion/ selection as assistant professor (BS-18) from Lecturer (BS-17), but many female teachers refused to join and got extension on the pretext that the new place of their posting was not suitable for them. Subsequently, a summary was moved by the department to the Chief Minister s Secretariat, seeking his approval to adjust/post these teachers after conversion and down-gradation of posts, etc.

Sources privy to the developments said that the summary was approved by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif last month but the issue has not yet been resolved. They said the Higher Education Department, in many of the cases, had recommended shifting of posts to adjust the female teachers but the same was tuned down by the Finance Department on the pretext the CM had not approved the same.

The sources said if the government failed to address the issue during the ongoing summer vacation, a large number of colleges of the province would be without teaching faculty, hampering academic activities and causing academic loss to students.

Talking to The News, a number of teachers awaiting postings said the delay was multiplying their troubles as, despite approval of the CM, the teachers were uncertain about their future. They demanded the chief minister take notice of the delay and provide relief to them so that they might resume their duties without any problem. The teachers seeking anonymity said many of the female teachers, after promotion to/ selection in the next grade, were transferred from their previous colleges to far away areas, which did not suit them according to the prevailing socio-economic circumstance.

It is pertinent to mention that the CM had formed a three-member committee comprising Punjab Higher Education secretary Haseeb Athar, provincial Minister for Education Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah Khan which had recommended adjustment of female teachers as one-time consideration keeping in view their problems.

A Higher Education Department official, seeking anonymity, said the department had prepared its reply over objection of the Finance Department, and expected that the issue would be resolved soon. However, he added, the teachers were also responsible for their problems. Being government servants, they should go wherever they are sent, he maintained.

When contacted, Higher Education secretary Haseeb Athar said posting of teachers was a regular issue and the department had so far posted around 1,100 teachers after promotion in the ongoing stint. He said the problem surfaces each time a faculty member shows reluctance to be posted as per directions of the department. He, however, claimed that the issue related to posting of the female teachers would be solved within a week.The news.