PESHAWAR: A high-level inquiry committee has detected multiple flaws and violation of rules in the process of recruiting teachers through private testing agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The inquiry conducted by Provincial Inspection Team revealed that elementary and secondary education department awarded the contract of screening test for appointment of teachers at government schools in violation of Appointment, Promotion and Transfer (APT) Rules, 1989.

The team conducted inquiry on the directives of chief minister after leak of papers in several districts in the screening test conducted by National Testing Agency for recruitment of primary schoolteacher (PST) across the province.

In light of the inquiry, provincial government cancelled the screening tests on March 16. The tests were held on February 7.

Minister claims probe committee has gone beyond its mandate

In its 33-page report, PIT has confirmed leak of papers prior to screening test as the district administration and officials of education department from several districts reported that candidates were caught with the solved questions mentioned in the papers.

PIT termed the education department’s recruitment policy for teachers as so-called, anfractuous and violation of rules of business as it was not approved by the provincial cabinet nor it was exempted from the APT Rules 1989.

The report said that even in the unapproved selection criteria, the NTS test was defined as screening test and it should have been used for screening purpose. On the contrary, the test marks had been used for preparation of final merit list, it added.

“A two hours NTS test had been given equal weight against academic career of more than 20-year. It is against natural justice,” said the inquiry report.

In its finding, the inquiry committee said that the testing agency had nothing to do with the academics of the candidates. After getting the test result from the testing agency, the government departments concerned could use the academic record of the candidates to compile the merit list, it added.

In the instant case, the number of vacant posts, academic record of candidates and test results are available with the testing agency without any control of the government which may compromise merit based appointments in such a situation.

The report said that the directorate of education had not vetted the relevant contract agreement through law department. It was executed on simple paper instead of stamp paper, it added.

Moreover, there was no mechanism for monitoring of the testing process and also no penal clauses in case of paper leak were mentioned in the agreement. Also, the financial arrangements of joining the testing agency’s bank account without approval of finance department were not covered under the rules.

PIT has recommended to the government that education department may be directed to examine the role of the relevant testing agency/service provider as per contract agreement and that of the staff concerned of education department under the relevant law and take necessary action accordingly.

“It is strongly recommended that the provincial government may pay special attention to weight of test in comparison with the academic marks preferably 20:80 respectively while formulating the recruitment policy,” said the recommendations of PIT.

The provincial government may strengthen Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (Etea) in terms of finance, human resources and capacity building so that government departments could utilise their services instead of hiring private testing agencies, the report states.

In future, the report says, the academic marks of the candidates should be in safe custody of the government department concerned and the testing agency may not be given access to the academic marks.

However, Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Shahram Khan Tarakai, when contacted, disagreed with certain observations of PIT.

He said that PIT was tasked to confirm whether papers were leaked or not. He said that PIT had no mandate to talk about the recruitment policy of education department and its agreement with the testing agencies.

The minister said that PIT had gone beyond its terms of reference while inquiring the leak of papers. He said that they (PIT members) were not supposed to discuss other things in the probe.

He said the education department had been working on preparing a detailed reply to on the issue that would be shared with the authorities concerned.

When asked as to why no one was punished for paper leak in several districts, the minister said that it was punishment for NTS to re-conduct the screening test on its own cost that would be in millions.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2021