16 February 2004	Monday	24 Zilhaj 1424

HARIPUR, Feb 15: The career of more than 150 surplus primary teachers is in jeopardy because of the district education department's failure to adjust them as the mandatory period of drawing salaries from the surplus pool comes to an end soon, sources said.

They said the district education department had declared at least 158 primary teachers from different schools surplus in line with the provincial government's directives in 2002.

Initially, the government had agreed to pay their salaries from the surplus pool budget for a period of two years after political parties and teachers associations opposed the retrenchment but even this arrangement would end in May this year.

Education authorities had assured the affected teachers to adjust them against vacant posts in the Abbottabad district. It was learnt that the district education department had declined to entertain a request in this regard.

Sources said that the education department had filled 24 vacant posts with surplus primary teachers during the fiscal year 2002-03 after getting approval from the DCO, Haripur, adding their services had not yet been regularised.

One of the affected teachers contacted by this correspondent said despite the promotion of 60 primary teachers on SET and CT posts, the education department had failed to adjust surplus teachers against these vacant posts.

He said that priority should be given to surplus teachers in new recruitments as they possessed adequate experience. Despite repeated attempt by this correspondent, the EDO education Haripur was not available for comments.