CHINIOT: As many as 75 teachers of different public schools of Lalian, Bhowana and Chiniot tehsils have been issued show cause notices by the district education authorities for showing “inefficiency” with regard to registration of deserving persons at Punjab Socioeconomic Registration (PSER) centres.

These public schools teachers, who had been assigned special duty to register poor people

across the district at PSER centres, have been issued notices for personal hearing and submitting replies, by the deputy district education officers (DDEOs) concerned.

The notices issued to the 11 teachers by Bhowana DDEO, say that as per the report of monitoring officers, they were found absent from duty at (PSER) centres on Aug 7 during the surprise visit by assistant education officers.

The teachers were directed to attend the office of the competent authority for “personal hearing” along with written reply. Non compliance or delay will be considered as misconduct and further action will be taken under relevant laws, the notice warns.

Public school teachers say they are sick of extra duties

Similarly, Chiniot DDEO issued notices to 30 teachers, saying that as per dashboard, they were mentioned “inactive” during the PSER survey and were directed to appear before the competent authority for personal hearing with written reply, or face further action under law.

The notice issued by Lalian tehsil DDEO to 34 teachers says they have made “Zero entry” in the at the PSER centre which is tantamount to “inefficiency and misconduct”.

The administration has established some 200 PSER centres in the district for computerized registration of deserving people visiting these points.

The teachers lament that they are already burdened with additional tasks like polio drops administration, making entries for census, performing election duties etc, and now PSER duties have been added to the list.

They condemned the issuance of “show cause notices” with regard to a task which is not included in their job description.

Punjab Teachers Union President Safdar Siraj Kalru has strongly condemned the issuance of notices to the 75 teachers, claiming they remained present at the PSER centres the whole day.

“If no one visits the centre to get registered, how teachers could make any entry into the computer data,” he asked.

He argued that bringing people for registration at the PSER centres was the duty of patwari and secretary union council etc, not the teachers. “The show cause notices should have bee issued to those who have failed to bring people to these centres,” Mr. Kalru said.

He demanded Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat to relieve the teachers of such extra duties so they could focus on their core assignment of teaching to help improve the quality of education in the public sector schools of the province.

He also demanded the minister to direct officers concerned to withdraw these “unnecessary notices” issued to 75 teachers of Chiniot district.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2024