KARACHI, Feb 22: The government-run colleges for general education in the city are faced with a shortage of about 900 teachers, which has been contributing adversely to the standard of teaching, said sources in the educational circle.
It was learnt that about 500 sanctioned posts of teachers have been lying vacant in colleges, while there is a need for creating another about 400 posts of teachers in order to meet the requirements of the old and recently-established colleges where new sections have also been introduced during the last a couple of years.
The nationalized cadre teachers are almost near to retirement, but the government has failed to provide teachers against the posts vacated by them. There are about 2,500 teachers in 90 colleges, excluding the new institutions, against an SNE (sanctioned number of employees) of about 3,000 teachers, said sources in colleges.
Sources in the education department claimed that about 800 posts of teachers in colleges had been lying vacant either due to the retirement of teachers or for want of new SNE. About nine colleges established recently are suffering due to non-sanctioning of new staff.
An official of the department agreed that there were considerable vacant posts, for which teachers are demanded, but the lengthy recruitment process, which also involves the Sindh Public Service Commission, did not help improve the situation.
It was also learnt that while some of the colleges were faced with an acute shortage of teachers, there were a few institutions where teachers were under utilized. In addition to expedite the process of appointing teachers, the government should also move to rationalize the number of teachers in some of the colleges.
According to a city government report prepared last year, the maximum number of teachers (91) was available at the Sir Syed Girls College. The Names of colleges along with the number of teachers posted there are as follows:
St Joseph’s College for Women (58), D.J. Science College (64), Govt College for Women, Frere Road (83), PECHS College for Women (86), Khatoon-i-Pakistan College (85), Islamic Science College (53), College of Home Economics (68), Gulshan-i-Iqbal College (62), Abdullah Girls College (62), Govt College for Men, Nazimabad, (59) and APWA Girls College (67).
However, as a stop gap arrangement, some of the colleges do engage teachers on contract basis on a monthly payment, which can not be held reasonable or matching to their services, informed a college principal. She said that some of the colleges did not have big rooms and as such the number of sections were considerably high, comprising 35-45 students each, and they needed more teachers.
The newly-appointed District Officer Education (colleges), Mohammad Asghar Khan, said that there was a need for at least 700 lecturers to overcome the teaching problem in colleges. He said that the matter had also been brought to the knowledge of the high-ups of the city government at a recent meeting and it was hoped that the Sindh government and the finance department would move swiftly in regard to the new SNE and appointment of teachers in colleges.