PESHAWAR, March 20: Political interference in the posting and transfer of teachers in the government colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has put the future of thousands of students in the militancy-hit province in danger, knowledgeable sources say.

“As the department of higher education tries to overcome the losses inflicted by the militancy on the academic side during recent years, the unnecessary posting and transfer of teachers only add to its problems,” officials said.

They said the teachers of government colleges wanted to be posted in big cities like Peshawar, Abbottabad and Mardan etc. “This practice has left colleges in the far-off areas short of staff and overburdened those in the city areas,” they added.

One official of the higher education department told Dawn that ruling political parties interfered in 95 per cent posting and transfer of college teachers. However, another official put this ratio at 100 per cent.

“Nowadays, almost each teacher is being transferred and posted on the reference of a minister or MPA,” sources said. It was harmful to waste the precious time of students when academic session was continued, they said.

They added that it took several months to fill a vacant post in the colleges of far-flung areas when a lecturer got transferred from there. “In such a situation no one teaches students and often the academic session ends without completing the relevant course,” they said.

Officials said that schoolteachers could teach a subject in the absence of their colleague but it was almost impossible for lecturers at a college to teach a subject, taught by a specific teacher. “Because, at college level each teacher is a specialist of a particular subject,” they added.

They said that in such cases students showed poor results at the end of year. “Politicians should stop interfering in posting and transfer of lecturers in the best interest of students,” officials said.

An educationist, wishing not to be named, when asked, said that most of the teachers were poor academically and they were also not committed with their profession. The influential teachers thought only about their personal benefits but didn't care for the future of students, he added.

The politicians, he said, admitted their children to leading private educational institutions but they played with the future of the children of poor people.

“The ministers and lawmakers should not interfere in the affairs of government-run colleges if they don't admit their children there,” he remarked.

An official of higher education department told Dawn that teachers were applying different tactics to get posting in their desired colleges. Narrating an incident, he said that a young lecturer came to his office and asked for his transfer to Peshawar from Nowshera. “The lecturer posed as disabled. He was limping while visiting my office but when he left my office I saw that he was physically fit,” he said.

He said that the lecturer was also very influential and several MPAs approached him to seek favour for him.