SWABI: About 300 posts of secondary school teachers (SSTs), also called senior teachers, are lying vacant in the government schools of Swabi district, according to sources.

They said that of those posts 75 per cent would be filled through the departmental promotion of teachers from different cadres and the remaining 25 per cent through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission.

The teachers in BPS-16 and having 10 years service on this post would have advantage to be promoted to BPS-17.

The sources in the education department said that the teachers had been asked to submit the required documents to the district education officer’s office. In the departmental promotion, 40 per cent quota has been given to senior certified teachers, 20 per cent to senior primary school teachers, and four each to senior theology teachers, senior Arabic teachers and senior drawing masters.

Three per cent quota is allotted to Qari teachers, but the physical education teachers have been excluded, the sources said.

The teachers said that the departmental promotions might be completed soon, but recruitment through the commission might take a long because of the due process of tests and interviews.

In addition, the physical education teachers have demanded of the government to restore their four per cent quota in SSTs to give them a chance of promotion.

Meanwhile, leaders of All Teachers Association (ATA) and senior English teachers in a meeting here on Saturday demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to initiate the process of promotion for the SSTs to BPS-17.

Presided over by ATA district president Abdul Latif, the meeting was also attended by secondary school teachers. They said that over 80 SSTs in the district had been waiting for their promotion.

They said that according to rules set by the provincial government the SSTs’ promotion to BPS-17 became due after completion of their 10-year service.

They said that that they had already sent their documents to the officials concerned, but their promotion was still being delayed due to unknown reasons.

Mr Latif said that now the SSTs had been asked to re-submit their documents with some additional papers for 2013, which they termed unjust. He feared that this could delay the process of promotion.