KARACHI, Dec 13: No male primary teacher will be appointed in future in Sindh as the provincial government has decided to appoint only female teachers at primary level to remove gender disparity and improve standard of education.

The existing male primary teachers will continue to serve. However, the posts falling vacant on their retirement would not be filled with any male teacher, sources in the education department say.

The exercise has been started with the hiring of 700 female teachers among 3,000 teachers appointed recently on a contract basis all over the province. The move is part of provincial reforms programme, which also envisages observance of merit. For hiring of these teachers, the private sector was inducted for the first time for carrying out competency tests and interviews, however, for future appointments, a proposal is under consideration to constitute a teachers certification board, headed by a judge of high court and members from well-reputed private sector institutions. A summery for constitution of certification board has been sent to the governor, sources added.

Since the appointments in grade-11 and above are made through Sindh Public Service Commission, it has been suggested to set up a certification board to ensure merit in recruiting teachers in lower cadre, sources said and revealed that standard of education has deteriorated to such an extent that only 481 candidates could qualify the tests held for 2,675 posts of junior school teachers, with the result that 2,194 posts are still vacant.—PPI