KARACHI : Interviews of 11,000 teachers in 16 days
By Hasan Mansoor
KARACHI, Sept 17: Over 50,000 men and women across Sindh, including 11,000 from Karachi, would be interviewed in all the 23 district headquarters from Tuesday (today) to shortlist and select some 9,200 individuals for the post of primary school teachers.
The provincial education department had conducted tests in the district headquarters during July-August. Of 126,000 candidates, who had applied for the job, some 105,000 appeared in the tests. The education department later announced the results and declared about 50,000 candidates passed.
In Karachi, 11,000 of 14,000 candidates passed the tests and were declared eligible for interviews. Official figures put the number of female candidates, who passed the tests, around 7,500 in Karachi.
The education officials had urged the high-ups for formation of at least six committees to conduct interviews of 11,000 candidates conveniently in minimum possible time. However, the request was plainly turned down. Now only four officials have to conduct interviews of thousands of candidates which could generate controversies in the process.
Many disgruntled candidates, who found their names in the ‘failed’ column of the result sheet, have already questioned the process, asking why the authorities failed to mention the total marks scored by each candidate in the list.
Schedule announced
According to the schedule of interviews in Karachi, female and male candidates from Liaquatabad and North Nazimabad towns will be interviewed at the Happy Dale Government Boys Secondary School, Nazimabad, on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
The female and male candidates from New Karachi and Gulberg will be interviewed on Sept 20 and 21; Orangi and Site (female candidates on Sept 22 and male on 23); Keamari and Baldia (female on Sept 24 and male on 25); Saddar and Jamshed towns (female on Sept 26 and male on 27); Malir and Gadap (female on Sept 28 and male on 29); Bin Qasim, Landhi and Korangi (female Sept 30 and male on Oct 1); Lyari, Shah Faisal and from Gulshan-i-Iqbal female candidates will be interviewed on Oct 3 and male candidates on Oct 4.
All the interviews will be conducted at the Happy Dale School from 8:30am to 3pm. The candidates have been informed to bring along admit card, original computerized national identity card, original educational certificates and their photocopies to appear for the interview.
Assess in 33 seconds
Some officials wonder how the committee could assess the merit of a candidate in 33 seconds since each candidate could not get more time if it is equally distributed among all the eligible candidates.
A simple calculation shows that the committee will spend six hours and 30 minutes (390 minutes) for interviews everyday and 104 hours (6,240 minutes) in 16 days. The calculated minutes are almost half of the number of candidates eligible for interview in Karachi.
A senior official said, “We’ll try to give appropriate time to every candidate.” However, it is next to impossible when each of the four committee members has been tasked with putting at least one question to the candidate.
“The whole exercise would raise huge question marks,” admitted an official, citing that the orders had come from the top hierarchy.
The authorities took 14 years to open the doors for jobs in the education department by lifting the ban on recruitment. Previously, the tests for the primary school teachers were conducted in 1993. The officials said the candidates with intermediate as their minimum qualification were eligible to appear in the test and interview for the posts of primary school teacher. However, they said, the holders of primary teachers’ certificate would be given preference both in selection and grade. The selected candidates would be offered a three-year contract, they said.
