March 30, 2006	Thursday	Safar 29, 1427

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MIANWALI, March 29: The withdrawal of the promotion orders of a local government high school teacher by the district education officer (secondary) has taken the teaching community by surprise, as it appears to be discordant with the illegal practice of giving irregular promotions to teachers in Mianwali.

The promotions for teachers on spurious credentials (bogus BA and MA degrees) have called into question the credibility of the education department authorities. “Will the menace ever come to an end” is the question every (honest) teacher is asking these days.

Dawn learnt that a scandal of bogus degrees by the teachers serving in the district education department has exposed the shortcomings in the system. Nearly 200 matriculate PTC, DM, PET and SV teachers as well as staffers working in BS-7 to BS-9 got jump promotions to pay scale 14 on the claims of attaining higher qualification of BA and MA in Arabic and Islamiat from a seminary — Darul Islamia Anwarul Aloom — at Par Hoti village in Mardan (NWFP).

Ironically, the issue hit the headlines a couple of months ago and directly exposed the government inefficiency, but no action has since been taken at any level. The only instance of such action is that District Education Officer (Secondary) Farooq Ahmad Khan had withdrawn his one such promotion orders of Jan 31, 2006.

Altafullah Khan, an SV teacher of the Government High Sschool Mianwali, was reverted to his previous BPS-9 without assigning any reasons. The officer claimed that he had issued the said promotion orders in line with the earlier practice by his predecessors in office. The demoted teacher did not agitate over his demotion since he knew that he was given illegal promotion.

He, however, is ill at ease these days as he claims that he is not enjoying the promotion which his colleagues have been given. He further complains that he has been made a scapegoat to cover up the corrupt practice by making the authorities concerned believe that his was the only invalid case that stood corrected.

It is learnt that a local teacher’s association is now putting tremendous pressure on Mr Altafullah not to appeal against his demotion orders.

Meanwhile, the district education department is said to be making efforts to sweep the issue under the carpet with the connivance of the district administration and the local politicians. The department will have to recover millions of rupees that had illegally gone into the pockets of the promoted teachers and their accomplices.

When a teacher’s association representative was contacted, he got outraged and burst out saying: “If matriculate politicians can contest elections and become legislators and ministers on the basis of such degrees of deeni madaris, then why can’t the poor teachers get benefit of such degrees.”

He claimed that the provincial government had authorised the education department through various notifications to promote the teachers possessing degrees of seminary considering the same equivalent to the degrees of BA and MA.

Maqbool Shakir, executive district Officer of education, said a number of such promotions had been ordered by the district education officers on the basis of improvement in educational qualifications. However, he said as he was consulted by DOs about such promotions, he advised them to get these degrees verified first besides asking teachers as to how they obtained these degrees without permission of the department or getting study leave.

Subsequently, no DO consulted or informed him about any such promotion. He said no copy of such promotion orders was ever sent to him by the district education officers. The copies of such orders were sent by the DO education only to district accounts officer, the in-charge headmaster of the promotees, the teacher concern and a copy to the notification file.

It is interesting to note that some of the teachers enjoying enhanced pay scale 14 on the basis of such fake and doubtful degrees issued in 2002 are now appearing for Intermediate exams of the Allama Iqbal University, Islamabad. Is there any justification to recognise a degree equivalent to MA when the person is appearing in FA examination after acquiring the said degree four years earlier to his FA candidature by now?

An insider of education department told Dawn on the request of anonymity that the issue in question was only the tip of the iceberg; the department was plagued by irregularities and corruption which could be fought against only through honest soul-searching and serious efforts by the government.

“There are many ghost schools in this district and teachers are regularly drawing their salaries without working. A majority of the schools are working without regular headmasters and there are institutions where the number of teachers exceed those of students — a clear-cut violation of the rules.

“The surplus teachers are doing their private businesses and stay away from school throughout the year. They turn up in the beginning of every month to draw salaries,” he said.

He said in the presence of such influential teachers, none of the government officials dared to check their attendance or overall performance. “Many are the teachers who have been posted in an institution for many years as they get away with being transferred, thanks to their associations with the influential godfathers.

Since the community was deeply involved in local politics, no action at the district government level was expected. The provincial or federal authorities, however, could take stock of the situation and check the corrupt practice.