KARACHI, Nov 18: The provincial education department handed over the offer letters for over 9,000 primary schoolteachers to their respective executive district officers on Saturday, which would be distributed to the successful candidates on Monday, officials said.

Among the total vacancies some 2,266 have been allocated for Karachi, it has been learnt.

Sources said the offer letters had been handed over to 23 EDOs for the successful candidates who had been interviewed a couple of months ago.

Some circles cited the latest circular of the chief secretary in which the provincial departments had been asked not to make any fresh recruitment and argued that such recruitments in the education department were a clear violation of the orders.

However, a senior official said the primary schoolteachers had been recruited by following a set procedure through transparent measures and the appointments were not a violation of that directive. “We are going to distribute these offer letters from Monday and we don’t think it is a violation of the CS’s orders,” EDO (Education) CDGK, Ms Fakhar Karim Siddiqui, told Dawn.

Over 105,000 out of 140,000 applicants had appeared in the tests five months ago. Of them, some 50,000 candidates had been declared passed and were interviewed later.

In Karachi, some 16,000 candidates had appeared in the tests, of which 9,000 were female. Around 10,000 had cleared the tests and were interviewed later.

Sources said some 9,200 vacancies for primary schoolteachers had been filled. The teachers would be given a three-year contract and would be regularized on their performance.