Sindh colleges facing acute shortage of teachers

Karachi:The education system in Pakistan is in a perpetual state of crisis with a negligible government budget as well as a dearth of quality academic institutions, but what is also worrying is the fact that teachers are hard to come by and Sindh specifically is facing an acute shortage of teaching staff in its public sector colleges.

There are more than 5,500 sanctioned posts in colleges across the province, but only 3,300 teachers are working, thus leaving close to 2,200 posts vacant, according to sources in the education department.

With regard to Karachi, there are a total of 2,687 sanctioned posts with 1,330 working as teachers and 1,357 positions left to be desired. This shortage of educators is having a negative impact on the education system and its outreach. Additionally, current teachers are forced to handle extra classes thus increasing their work load and decreasing the quality of their service.

They sources said that at least 720 male lecturers are currently working at the grade-17 level in public colleges with 700 vacancies. Similarly, 610 female lecturers of grade-17 are position with around 650 posts lying vacant in this category.

There are 24 sanctioned posts of BS-17 for female teachers at the Government College for Women on Shahrah-e-Liquat, but strangely enough 34 women are teaching at the aforementioned college.

Conversely, there are only two female teachers (BS-17) teachers at both at Government Girls Inter Arts/Science, Commerce College, 15-C Orangi Town and Government Degree College for Women Orangi Sector, 11 . Close to 20 vacancies are still available at both colleges, the sources said.

Nabi Bagh ZM Government Inter Science College and the Government College of Commerce and Economics, College No1 are the only public colleges where all academic posts are occupied, they added.

With respect to the rest of the province, more than 130 teaching posts lie vacant in Hyderabad, 118 in Mirpurkhas, more than 350 in Larkana and 275 in Sukkur. However, an official on the condition on anonymity told The News that the Sindh Public Service Commission conducted a written test for vacant posts and the process of interviewing successful candidates was in progress.

The process of posting these teaching candidates at the BS-17 level would start by the end of this year, he said. He added that the government had planned to hire an additional 500 grade-17 teachers to facilitate students at institutions which were meant to be constructed during the current fiscal year.The news.