KARACHI, Oct 31: About 250 men and women having postgraduate degrees have volunteered their services to the City District Government Karachi to teach the first year students of ten newly-established public-sector colleges in the city.

Well-placed sources said that in view of the continued shortage of teaching staff at colleges, the government had appealed to the qualified and meritorious persons to render their services for teaching assignments at the ten city colleges which were made functional this year. The selected persons would be appointed at least for a period of three months, as it is likely that regular appointments would also be made as per the sanctioned schedule of employment.

The applicants are supposed not to be paid for their work but the city government would award them certificates of appreciation and experience. The applications were invited for the honorary assignments in the subject of mathematics, chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, commerce, economics, English, Urdu, Islamiyat, political science and education.

It was learnt that after the initial scrutiny of applications received so far, 150 applicants were found eligible. A special committee, comprising EDO (Higher Education) and other senior education officials and elected councillors, would interview the shortlisted persons soon.

The persons selected for the post of “honorary lecturers” would be posted at the following colleges: Degree Boys College, Manghopir; Degree Boys College, Surjani Town; Degree Boys College, Konkar Gaddap; Degree Boys College, Landhi-4; Degree Girls College, Korangi 2 1/2; Degree Girls College, Block-K, Nazimabad; Degree Girls College, Sector 11, North Karachi; Degree Girls College, Gulshan-i-Iqbal; Degree Girls College, Shah Faisal Colony; and, Degree Girls College, Malir.

A senior official said some other colleges were also facing shortage of teachers. As many as 1,200 lecturers are required for teaching different subjects at the government colleges, in addition to the 22 colleges established by the city government during the last two years.

The non-availability of teachers has been a source of concern for the students and teaching community as it was causing a deterioration in the academic standards. Academic circles said Sindh education department had also been considering appointing lecturers on adhoc basis, bypassing the prescribed procedure of appointing them through the Sindh Public Service Commission.

However, this too has not materialized so far. Thousands of applications have been received but a firm decision is yet to be taken whether lecturers should be selected by a committee set up by the education department or not.

It was further learnt that in view of the urgency, the city government had already assigned jobs of honorary lecturers to 10 women at North Nazimabad, (Block-K) Girls College. It has also selected 33 teachers, who would be detailed to work at the newly-established college.

They would be drawing their salaries from their original place of posting. A city government official said there had been some confusion over the detailment of these teachers due to some recently reported reservations on the part of the education secretary.

But the city government had not withdrawn the list of 33 teachers. City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has already discussed the issue with the chief secretary of Sindh and in view of the gravity of the situation the detailment of teachers has been approved in principle for the time being, the official said.

Talking about the situation, teachers maintain that the prolonged ban on recruitment in the education department had added to the problems facing the colleges. They point out that the department had even failed to fill the positions that had fallen vacant due to the retirement or deaths of teachers, let alone the vacancies in the new institutions.

Due to the non-availability of teachers, the college administrations also failed to implement the compulsory attendance rules in the case of students, they added. The students justify their absence, saying it was meaningless to go to college every day when the administration is unable to hold even the routine classes.

On the other hand, they sat, teaching at coaching centres prove more useful and productive, at least from the examination point of view.