PESHAWAR: The elementary and secondary education department has directed all the district education officers to start the process of hiring 10,074 primary school teachers as stopgap arrangement through school level parent-teacher councils (PTC), according to officials.

They said that teachers would be hired at government primary schools from the respective union council by PTCs, a school-based body consisting of parents of the enrolled students, influential locals and administration of the school. “If proper candidates are not available at relevant union councils, then priority will be given to adjacent union councils,” they told this scribe.

Officials said that currently education department was short of around 19,000 teachers and 10,074 of them would be hired as stopgap arrangement.

According to official documents, 2,935 teachers would be hired for government girls’ primary schools and 2,910 for boys’ primary schools in settled districts, while 3,837 teachers for girls’ primary schools and 392 for boys’ primary schools will be hired in tribal districts of the province.

Govt will spend Rs2.267bn annually on the initiative

The documents reveal that 558 teachers will be hired for boys’ schools in Lakki, 351 in Mansehra, 269 in Dir Upper, 226 in Swat, 241 in Charsadda, 226 in Dir Lower, 202 in Abbottabad, 115 in Karak, 110 in Khyber, 105 in sub-division Darra Adamkhel and 103 in Upper Chitral and other areas.

Similarly, 780 teachers would be hired for government girls’ primary schools in North Waziristan, 597 in Khyber, 446 in sub-division Wazir Bannu, 401 in Orakzai, 339 in Mohmand, 297 in South Waziristan Upper, 280 in Bannu, 225 in sub-division Jandola Tank and 204 in Bajuar and other areas.

The secretary of elementary and secondary education department, Mohammad Khalid, told Dawn that the initiative was meant to ensure that all primary schools had at least four teachers or as per the proscribed student-teacher ratio of (1-40), whichever was less.

He said that besides hiring 10,074 teachers, the process of appointment of 16,000 others was also in progress through government-run Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (Etea).

Under the good governance roadmap of provincial government, the education secretary said, primary schools with less than 60 students should have at least two teachers while schools with above 60 students would have three teachers and schools having 100 students would have four teachers, at least. “With the completion of this process, there would be no more primary school with single teacher,” he added.

According to official documents, education department has directed all district education officers that all teachers should be hired strictly from the talent pool through PTCs in accordance with prescribed process.

The documents said that for summer zones, teachers should be hired from Jan 16 to Jan 31, 2026, and for winter zone schools, teachers should be hired from March 1, to June 30.

The performance of hired teachers will be evaluated through the school-based assessment of students. The district education officers (DEOs) should submit a bifurcation of schools into summer and winter zones, based on which finance department should be requested to release funds to the respective PTCs, said the documents.

To address acute teacher shortages, particularly at primary level, the provincial cabinet has recently approved interim hiring of 10,074 primary teachers through parent-teacher councils.

These teachers will be engaged on an interim basis at an honorarium of Rs25,000 per month, with the objective of ensuring minimum staffing norms and improving classroom functionality. The total financial implication of this intervention stands at Rs2.267 billion annually.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2025