KOHAT, March 5: The MMA government has decided that the provincial departments will from now on appoint primary to secondary level teachers for Islamic studies and Arabic, instead of the district governments , it was officially learnt on Thursday.

The plea taken by the MMA government for this decision is that most of the certificates and degrees possessed by the teachers teaching these subjects are either fake, or they have been obtained from unregistered seminaries, which may result in candidates with genuine qualifications being deprived of the chance for jobs in the education department.

Other sources have expressed the suspicion that the MMA government has made this decision to appointment their own blue- eyed nominees to the 5,000 or so posts lying vacant in NWFP, and please the voters through this ploy to garner votes, because of its political and ideological differences with nazims in all the 24 districts of NWFP.

They suggested that before the matter is politicised further in the province it would be wise if the government fixed a quota for both the university and the madressah graduates for appointments on these vacant posts so that no injustice is done.

An official in the education department said that although the ban on jobs had been lifted, there were still more than 5000 vacant posts of primary, middle, secondary and college level teachers which speaks volumes for the apathy of the people at the helm to address the problem of declining standard of education in the backward province of the country.

It has been further learnt that out of this big number of vacant posts most of the vacancies are that of science, mathematics, computer and some of the principals.

In the remote districts and the tribal areas where senior teachers do not like to be posted owing to their remoteness, the situation is worst. There is usually one teacher who teaches all the subjects at all levels, besides working as the clerk and accountant.

The grade 17 and 18 teachers are always reluctant to work in these deprived and backward areas along with grade 5 or 7 teachers. This had also resulted in poor administration where during most part of the year when the schools were open the rate of absenteeism remained very high.

The government had miserably failed over the years to check the trend of absenteeism in the far flung areas, where the increased allocations in this vital sector are going down the drain.

According to a report prepared by the district government no student educated in the secondary schools in the district run by the government has reached the professional institute like engineering university and the medical college for the last decade or so for obvious reasons.

The district nazim, while commenting on the situation, said that by merely constructing more school buildings we cannot improve the ever declining education standard, unless the syllabus is revised from the primary level up to the university level.

Further, the syllabus must suit our present and future requirements, teachers must be imparted modern training and corruption and cheating must be eliminated from the system by making teachers and principals accountable.