Hundreds of class 9 and 10 students from the Punjab government schools who had opted for computer studies are worried about the unavailability of teachers. The information technology (IT) teachers in the Punjab government schools were employed on contract basis, which had expired on September 31.
In Rawalpindi district computer centres have been set up in 28 high schools. The teachers are not taking classes and planning to quit, as they have not got salaries after expiry of contract and the government has not yet renewed their contract. A teacher confided on Thursday that on the one hand the government claimed that it was providing maximum facilities to teachers, on the other it had not yet renewed contract of hundreds of computer teachers. He said according to his information there were more than 500 high schools in the Punjab province. He said if the government did not renew the contracts it would render many teachers jobless. He said the chief minister should take note of this issue.
Muhammad Aamir, a 10th class student, said for the last two months no computer class was held in their school and the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination of Multan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) was about to start from March 7, 2009. Abdul Haseeb, another 10th class student, said only three and half months had left to their exams and due to unavailability of teacher no computer class had been held since the end of September. He said now they had no choice to change the subject.
Executive District Officer (Education) Multan said the provincial government had the authority to renew contract of the teachers. He said the Rawalpindi district had only 26 computer teachers.
Punjab Teachers Association Multan Division President Rana Wilayat Ali said students were suffering due to unavailability of IT teachers. He said science students were given the option whether to have a combination of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology or Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer subjects. He said more students opted for computer subject due to job opportunities as computer operators. Rana said winter vacations would start in next month and there would be no computer class in the last quarter of this year. District Officer Monitoring told that Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif had directed the authorities to set up computer centres in every high school in the province.
He said they had prepared a plan and divided schools in to three categories to start the computer classes. He said in category 'A' school classrooms, furniture and electricity were already available and the government had to only provide computers to start classes soon. In category 'B' schools, classrooms and electricity were available and the government had to arrange furniture for setting up computer labs, he said, adding, while the category 'C' schools had no proper classroom and the electricity.
He said they had asked the principals of such schools, which were 12 in number in the district to make arrangements for the electricity connection as soon as possible. He said the government would pay 70 percent expenditure for getting the power connection while the school had to pay only the rest 30 percent.
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