Sindh education department asked to hire college teachers

Sindh Education Department has been directed to fill the vacant positions of college teachers on two-year contract basis. Dr Hamida Khuhro, Sindh Education Minster has directed the department to take immediate steps to fill the vacant budgeted positions of college teachers on contract basis initially for two years.
She was chairing a meeting of the senior officers of the department here on Wednesday. Dr Khuhro directed that all appointments should be on merit basis and in most transparent manner in line with the directives of President Pervez Musharraf.
She directed that a summary in this regard be drafted for the Chief Minister for his approval within a week's time so that the process could be completed in the shortest possible time.
Earlier, Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh, provincial chief of college education informed the minister that there was acute shortage of college teachers in various subjects in the province. He said all the five regions of college education in Sindh ie Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur faced similar situation due to ban on appointments in recent years.
Dr Shaikh informed the meeting that during the last few years the provincial government had opened several new colleges in Karachi as well as in the interior of Sindh. However, no corresponding number of college teachers was appointed on regular basis. He said the shortage of teachers was dealt through ad-hoc arrangements by the city and the district governments, which controlled college education from 2001 to 30th June 2006.
The Provincial Education Manager informed the meeting that the colleges were severely under-staffed when the administrative control of college education stood transferred from the city and the district governments to the Government of Sindh on July 1, 2006, in pursuance of the Sindh Local Government (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2006.
The number of vacant posts of teaching faculty in the colleges of Sindh was about 1,500, he said adding due to this shortage the educational standards in colleges were being affected badly. Hence in the best interest of education, immediate steps for filling the vacancies were required.
Dr Shaikh further informed the meeting that as per rules, selection on regular basis for the posts in BPS-17 and above is to be made through Sindh Public Service Commission. However, appointments on contract basis could be made by the concerned departments with the approval of the competent authority.
He suggested that in view of the urgency of situation, his department be allowed to fill the vacant budgeted posts of college teachers in various grades on contract basis initially for a period of two years, while the case for regular appointments against those vacancies could be referred to SPSC, as the SPSC will require time to complete its process of recruitment. The meeting was also attended by Sabhago Khan Jotoie, Secretary Education Sindh.