SWABI, Feb 23: Over 200 primary school teachers will be appointed within the next one month to fill the posts lying vacant for the last two years in different schools of the district, official sources told this correspondent on Wednesday.

They said that the education department was set to finalise the merit list within next two weeks.

“The newly-appointed teachers are expected to take charge of their duties before the start of the new academic year on April 1,” said the officials.

They said that about 6,000 trained youngsters had applied for over 200 posts of the primary school teachers and according to the appointment policy 60 percent of the posts would be filled on merit and 40 percent on union council basis.

The sources said that a large number of master's degree holders had also applied for the PST posts.

“All the requirements have been completed, but the big problem for the officials is how to tackle the pressure from the ruling elite while upholding the merit,” said an insider.

The officials said that efforts had been made to stop meddling of the two coalition partners in provincial government. It has been learnt that people had accelerated efforts to use political connections for appointments. AWARDED: Executive district officer, (education) Abdul Salam on Wednesday said that co-curricular activities were the essential part of education and every school should ensure that students took part in sports.

He was speaking at a function arranged to award trophies to the winning teams of the inter-school district tournament. Headmasters of various schools and teachers concerned were also present at the function.

Mr Salam said that no one could deny the importance of sports and it was the responsibility of the physical education teachers (PETs) to motivate students for taking part in different sports activities. SHOOTOUT ISSUE: The issue of Topi shootout in which three protesters were killed on August 6 last year, has been peacefully resolved at Madrassa Saeedia, Kotha, here on Wednesday.

An FIR was registered then and it was alleged that a DSP and SHO were responsible for opening of fire on people protesting against power loadshedding.

The meeting was attended by DCO Abdul Jabbar Khan, Maulana Khalil, Masood Jabbar Khan, Muhammad Usman, Haji Rehmanullah and members of Kotha Jirga.

Families of the victims forgave the two officials and the case would no longer proceed in the court of law, it was announced at the meeting.