PESHAWAR: Most of the teachers holding administrative posts in the provincial and federal government’s offices are reluctant to return to their colleges despite the issuance of orders by the higher education department.

They are understood to be making efforts either for the cancellation of their repatriation orders or get themselves adjusted to some other departments.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan recently directed the higher education department to call back all deputationist teachers from the provincial and federal government secretariats.

He issued the orders during a meeting on Aug 5 after learning about an acute shortage of teachers in colleges of southern districts.

The HED issued a notification on Aug 9 for the repatriation of 22 college teachers, including lecturers, assistant professors and associate professors.

An official in the department told Dawn that colleges were short of 2,000 faculty members.

He said the provincial public service commission had agreed with the higher education department to recruit 1,900 teachers in those colleges.

Their repatriation was ordered by higher education dept recently

The official said the PSC had assured the HED that it would complete the recruitment process by December.

Sources said the HED Secretariat had ordered the repatriation of college teachers to the directorate of higher education department with an immediate effect for further posting.

They, however, said despite the lapse of a week, not a single teacher had submitted ‘arrival report’ to the department.

The sources said high-ups in the HED were under immense pressure from influential people in the current political dispensation to either cancel their repatriation orders or post them to secretariats of other departments.

They said it was a matter of concern that teachers were not happy to teach students despite enjoying a total of four-five months break from work every year, including summer and winter vacation and official holidays.

The official list compiled by the HED shows that four senior teachers are working in the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission headquarters, Islamabad, on deputation and they include Associate Prof Usman Ali (economics), Associate Prof Ghulam Ali (political sciences), Associate Prof Shamsul Haq (economics) and Assistant Prof Asfandyar (economics).

Associate Prof Mohammad Riaz (English) is working on deputation with the KP Right to Services Commission as the secretary, Assistant Prof (History and Civics) as the deputy director of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Assistant Prof Mohammad Shaib (Urdu) as the deputy director of the KP Technical Vocational Training Authority.

Similarly, lecturer Irfanullah Khan (political science) is serving as the deputy director of the mineral development department, lecturer Shahid Gul (political science) as a research officer in the planning and development department, lecturer Ahmad Ali (political science) at the National Counter-Terrorism Authority in Islamabad, lecturer Mohammad Sajid (economics) as the monitoring and evaluation officer in tourism department, Assistant Prof Gulzar Hussain (English) as the deputy director at the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation.

Also, Assistant Prof Irum Sultana (English) works as a deputy director in the industries commerce and technical department, Peshawar, lecturer Shazia Khan (home economics) in the Cabinet Secretariat in Islamabad and Assistant Prof Gul Rukh Wazir (geography) as the assistant chief education of the P&D department in Peshawar.

Sources said majority of those deputationists had served most of their service time outside colleges they’re posted to.

Published in Dawn, August 15th , 2021