LAHORE: To address the teacher shortage, the Punjabi government has chosen to hire 30,000 visiting teachers for schools in the first phase. The province School Education Department (SED) is experiencing a teacher shortage of 115,000.
The last significant hiring of teachers took place in 2018, under the PML-N administration. Around 400–500 appointments were made in just two districts Murree and Mianwali during the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf tenure.
Additionally, the PTI government modified the hiring process and mandated the holding of an exam similar to the PPSC. The PTI government also introduced College Teaching Interns (CTIs) to fill available jobs in institutions to fill the shortfall. The current government was also encouraged to implement CTIs. New graduates were eligible to apply for the position of CTI, and their monthly pay was Rs 25,000.
SED sources, however, claimed that the present administration was attempting to hire the 30,000 teachers on a visiting basis, paying them for each lecture. The government would offer school councils more money to pay visiting teacher’s salaries, and the councils would raise money to cover the costs of running the schools.
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General Secretary of the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU), Rana Liaqat, told Dawn that in need to address the teacher shortage, the government needs to begin hiring teachers for the school system and appoint them permanently.
According to him, the province changed into approximately 115000 schoolteachers, and the only manner to fill the gap could be to hire new instructors on a permanent foundation.
He claimed that the schools would have more difficulties if the visiting teachers were paid on a daily wage basis.
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The Punjab government stated in 2022 that all public schoolteachers over 55 who have worked for 25 years would be eligible for an early retirement option.
Under the new policy, thousands of educators filed for early retirement, but their applications were not accepted. Thousands of applications from teachers in the province seeking an early retirement had been turned down by the SED.