Teachers’ appointment: All successful applicants made it through sheer merit: minister

KARACHI: The Sindh Education Minister on Friday accepted the opposition criticism over reduced test passing marks for appointing school teachers but told the Sindh Assembly that all successful applicants made it through merit.

Arif Mustafa Jatoi of the GDA placed his call attention notice, worrying over persistent fall in school education standards. He said that if a teacher is appointed through minimal test marks, then how a better education can be guaranteed.

He said the IBA’s test for teachers’ appointment proved daunting task for teachers as nearly 99 percent applicants failed it ultimately. None of the MPA’s kids are enrolled at the government-run schools, he slammed.

“My father attended the state-run school and became prime minister (of Pakistan),” he told the house, saying that the Sindh government became compelled to reduce passing marks for applicants on teachers post. “If an applicant who acquired only 40 percent passing marks to become a teacher, then how could he would assure imparting a good education to kids,” he questioned.

He slammed the Sindh cabinet for giving nod to a policy for appointing teachers on lower passing marks, saying that “if it were the purpose to appoint a teacher then why not select street walkers for the post”. Teachers are always appointed on a locality basis, Arif said and added that the Sindh government has coined a new policy to post the teaching staff on a union council level. He called the proposed move a “loss” to the students education.

“Only 1300 out of 32000 applicants could qualify through the test for teachers post,” he told the legislature, dubbing the failure “injustice” to Sindh. “I am sorry to say that the rationale given for merit I accept it,” Syed Sardar Shah, the Sindh Education Minister acknowledged before the house, saying that the government was aware of the expected criticism over the policy of reduced passing marks.

But, he told the house, not a single candidate passed the test against the merit, pointing out that “even a son of Secretary Education failed the test”.

The most vacancies come from the Sindh Education Department as some 6000 new posts generate every year, he said.

Some 90 percent applicants had appeared for arts discipline as the government set 45 percent for a single subject while overall passing marks were 55 percent for each aspirant to become a teacher of the state-run schools, he said.

Girls schools in rural areas of Sindh could not take off to help spread education amongst the female section of the far-flung localities, Syed Sardar Shah informed the lawmakers, saying that minority and female quota posts were also introduced.

The house also adopted a resolution with a majority vote that Parliamentary Secretary on Health, Qasim Soomro had placed, rejecting the federal government’s “negotiations” with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

He said that the federal government should first take the parliament in confidence over the talks with the TTP. “The TTP has killed our youth and politicians,” he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021