MURREE: Many primary schools in Murree district are facing shortage of teachers while five institutions do not have teachers at all, putting at risk the future of hundreds of students from the hill station and neighbouring villages.

To run the affairs of “teacher-less schools”, a teacher from other schools has been attached to the institution on a temporary basis.

Sources said at a time when several schools of Murree were under-staffed, over 20 teachers are enjoying postings in other schools mainly in Rawalpindi or schools near their homes under so-called attachments.

“We are very upset, at least five of our schools are without teachers and many other schools are under-staffed, but around two dozen of our teachers manage their temporary duties on attachments in Rawalpindi,” said a source in the education department.

Sharing details, the source said among the institutions that did not have teachers was a girls primary school in Sehr Gran, Union Council Charian.

Five institutions without teachers whereas several are understaffed, source says

However, the community had hired services of a private female teacher on its own to run the affairs of the school. This school has 14 girl students.

Similarly, there is another girls primary school in Dhoke Haider Khan in Sehr Bagla Union Council where there is zero enrollment due to absence of a teacher. Around four years ago, this school had over 30 students.

The third such school is the primary school in Bhenati which has 48 students. Currently, a teacher from the already under-staffed Kakrai elementary school (which has 124 students and now two teachers) has been performing her duties in this school on a temporary basis.

Meanwhile, primary schools Rhatal (Bann-Chahrian) and Topa Kair are also being run by single borrowed teachers from other schools.

Besides the issues of teacher-less schools and so-called attachment duties, schools of Murree have been facing shortage of teachers overall.

Sources said there were 234 schools in Murree, including around 151 primary schools. These primary schools face a shortage of teachers, they added.

The sources said that there are a total of 1,098 sanctioned posts of primary teachers and out of the total, 366 have been lying vacant.

“We have a total of 732 primary teachers. There is need to fill the vacant posts, besides, undoing illogical attachment duties of teachers so that students of all schools could have teachers,” said an official.

It is relevant to note here that because of various factors including shortage of infrastructure, teachers and awareness, Pakistan has 23 million out-of-school children, which is the highest figure in the world.

Whereas, besides this issue, dropout is also a major phenomenon and teacher-less and under staffed schools could be one of the reasons that students drop out of schools.

When contacted, Deputy District Education Officer (Murree) Dr Hajra Shaheen said that there were five teacher-less schools in Murree, adding that through temporary arrangements, she had been running these schools.

“As far as posting of teachers on attachment basis was concerned, we have already taken notice of this issue and soon, such temporary duties will be undone,” she said.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Yasin Baloch from Rawalpindi (as education sector of Murree district still falls under the domain of CEO Rawalpindi), said that within the next couple of days, he would cancel orders of teachers serving on attachment basis to ensure posting of teachers in those schools, which were facing shortage of teachers.

“As far as the five schools are concerned, I will ensure posting of teachers in all these schools. Currently, I have no idea about such schools as last week I joined as CEO, but let me make it clear, I will resolve this issue,” he said and added that steps will also be taken to fill the vacant teaching posts in Murree.

A couple of years ago the government had announced over 500 teaching posts, specifically for Murree and Kotli Sattian, but only around 150 teachers could pass the exams, therefore, majority of the said positions remain unfilled.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2023