LAHORE: The Punjab School Education Department (SED) on Tuesday sacked 2,500 teachers from service for not submitting their B.Ed degrees — a condition of their job contract.

The sacked teachers include elementary school educators (ESE), senior elementary school educators (SESE) serving in BS-14 and 15.

These teachers were recruited in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017 on contract basis and were directed to complete the B.Ed in two years time.

An SED official told Dawn the teachers were first given two years time to fulfill the B.Ed condition of their contract, and later the department allowed an additional year to them because of the coronavirus pandemic, setting December 2021 as the deadline.

However, he said despite getting three years time, these teachers could not complete the condition of their contract and were removed from service.

The sacked teachers also include those who could not complete their degree within their contractual period of five years.

However, the official said, contracts of thousands of teachers who had submitted the B.Ed degrees were extended.

Meanwhile, the SED has called a meeting to discuss the removal of the teachers from service on April 1, to be presided over by Special Secretary Zaheer Hassan. The representatives of the Punjab Teachers Union, additional secretary DPI and director school will also attend the meeting. Punjab Teacher Union (PTU) leader Rana Liaqat told Dawn that he would attend the meeting and request the department to withdraw the order of removal of the teachers from service.

He said the department was already facing an acute shortage of teaching staff and removal of hundreds of teachers would adversely impact the education of students in the new academic year.

He said most of the teachers failed to submit their degree because of the coronavirus pandemic as no B.Ed examination were conducted.

He added that the time extended by the department also lapsed due to the pandemic.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2022