HARIPUR: Only one teacher is running the Government Middle School for Boys, Kanikot village, as the education department has failed to fill the vacant posts for the last over three years, area people told this correspondent here on Saturday.

According to the residents of Kanikot, a remote village of Kalinjar union council, the provincial government had opened the middle school during the academic session, 2019. As there is no girls school in the area, the people send their daughters to study along with the boys and as per the school record 15 girl students are also enrolled in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades besides 30 boys.

“Of the seven sanctioned posts only three teachers started the school in 2019 and four seats remained vacant till this day despite repeated requests to the political leadership and education department to fill them,” said Malik Zarnosh, a resident.

The school has seven sanctioned posts

He said the school headmaster got himself transferred while of the two certified teachers one was transferred on promotion to a higher secondary school and now only one CT teacher was left to manage the entire school.

“The only teacher posted in the school spends most of his time ensuring order in the classes and could hardly teach the students,” said another villager Safdar Khan.

According to an educationist, there are nine subjects in grade-6, 10 subjects in grade-7 and 11 subjects in grade-8 and the single teacher posted in the school could not teach all these subjects in the school timings from 7:30am to 1:30pm.

An official of Haripur education department said that as per approved policy a middle school had the sanctioned posts of a headmaster, two CT teachers, an Islamiyat teacher, Qari, physical education teacher and a drawing master.

This correspondent tried to contact district education officer Mukhtiyar Jadoon, but he didn’t answer phone calls and text message.

However, another official at his office confirmed that a single teacher was presently posted at the Government Middle School for Boys, Kanikot. He said that a proposal for filling the vacant posts in the school was under process.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2022