RAWALPINDI: An inquiry has been launched against 207 teachers in the Rawalpindi division for not performing their assigned supervisory staff duties in the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) second annual examination.

According to the administration, 110 teachers in Rawalpindi district, 44 in Attock, 16 in Chakwal, 25 in Jhelum and 12 in Talagang allegedly refused to join the duties.

However, the Punjab Teachers Union said the provincial government had stopped teachers from performing extra duties. “If a teacher is not willing to work other than his/her school duty the commissioner nor anyone else cannot force them,” said Raja Shahid Mubarrak, the general secretary of the union.

Commissioner Aamir Khattak directed the district education authorities of Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum to launch disciplinary proceedings under Punjab Employee Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act 2006 against the teachers who failed to perform their duties at the exam centres held by the Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (RBISE).

Union leader says Punjab govt has barred district and divisional administrations from assigning duties to teachers when schools are open

BISE Rawalpindi spokesman Arslan Cheema told Dawn that the board had recommended to the commissioner to take action against the teachers who had been assigned duties in the intermediate annual examination but refused to join it.

He said as per law it was an essential duty of the teachers to supervise exams. He said the BISE paid Rs850 per day to each teacher for one time exam duty and if they performed duty in the morning and evening exams they would be paid Rs1,250 for a day.

He said the board faced problems but managed the conduct of the exams. He said Minister for Higher Education Rana Sikandar Hayat and Secretary Higher Education Dr Farrukh Naveed were implementing a zero tolerance policy and had approved the action.

As per the date-sheet, the HSSC 2nd annual examination commenced on October 17 whereas the supervisory staff failed to join their duty till Oct 21.

In his directions, the commissioner said non-compliance represents a serious violation of duty and demonstrates negligence, which has the potential to disrupt the smooth conduct of the examinations.

He stated that teachers’ negligent act was tantamount to disobedience, misconduct and inefficiency. Therefore, the district education authorities had been directed that disciplinary proceedings against the supervisory staff, who failed to join the duty, may be initiated under PEEDA.

He also directed them to send an inquiry report to his office within a week.

A senior official of the education authority told Dawn that the inquiry would be started from Thursday and all teachers had been called to present their reasons for not joining the exam duties.

He said punishments under PEEDA Act 2006 included dismissal from service, forfeiture of service seniority and allowances so the district education authorities will give a chance to the teachers to present their case.

When contacted, Punjab Teachers Union General Secretary Raja Shahid Mubarrak said it was disrespect to depute teachers on dengue, polio, census, election and other duties like at the exams of BISE. “We will resist the action against any teacher,” he said.

He said Rs850 per day were paid to each teacher for exam duties after detecting 10 per general sales tax. The payment was made after six months or a year.

He said Punjab School Education Department had issued a notification on Tuesday barring the district and divisional administrations from assigning duties to teachers when schools were open.

He said BISE engaged Basic Pay Scale 17 and 18 teachers and assigned them duties to supervise exams under scale 12 clerks of BISE as superintendents of the examination halls, which is a violation of seniority and thus many teachers avoided it.

“If examination duty is essential, why BISE is not assigning such duty to college teachers?” He said schoolteachers were being utilised for dengue, polio drives, registration of people on socioeconomic registry and for other duties.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2024