Online transfer orders of 949 teachers issued under e-transfer policy

PESHAWAR: A total of 949 transfer orders of teachers were issued on Thursday as the provincial government formally implemented the e-transfer policy for teachers.

The orders were displayed on the online App and one can download and print it directly from their mobile phone and computers. The provincial government recently launched the E-transfer policy after formal approval was accorded to it by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.

The policy, if implemented in letter and spirit and the existing flaws are removed from it, would certainly lessen burden on the education directorate and department. The transfers and postings of teachers have always been the biggest issue faced by the education department for a host of reasons, the top of which is the huge number of teachers in the province. Secondly, almost every teacher maintains political affiliation somehow. And they are always keen in looking for a favorite location and they use every mean to get themselves transferred. The very idea behind the introduction of the e-transfer policy was to rid the authorities of the huge burden of teachers’ transfers and postings besides ensuring transparency and fair play in the process.

However, some serious flaws have been reported at the implementation stage of the policy. Some reports suggested that the political elites were trying to foil the policy, as it would reduce their interference in the process, which is why the flaws were left unaddressed.

As per the policy, all the teachers would have easy access to the online App specifically introduced for the transfers and postings of the teachers. The positions would be uploaded once on the App at the start of the academic year and the teachers would be asked to apply for their desired locations.

This year, a total of 10,858 were uploaded for which only 2093 applications were received. The total number of teachers who have ensured registration on the app was 14,439, sources told The News. Out of the applications received online, 1285 were verified and 808 were rejected. Thus a total of 949 transfer orders including 659 male and 290 female teachers were issued, the sources add.

The department, according to the sources, is planning to reform the e-transfer policy. Some necessary amendments that are required to make the policy more effective should be taken at the earliest, the sources said.

The first and foremost of the reforms required to be made in the policy is that it should be extended to all parts of the province including the recently merged districts which once used to be the federally administered tribal areas. According to the policy, no one can apply for transfer from settled districts to the erstwhile tribal area and the vice versa. Similarly, hard areas within districts have not been notified and inter-district transfers of teachers in BS-16 and below have been banned. “Someone serving in a distant part of a district would not be able to get transferred to the headquarters of the same district,” an official said. Also, only vacant positions are supposed to be uploaded on the App, so the teachers serving against favorite positions for many years could not be displaced from there.

Also, exemptions have been given to the minister concerned and chief minister for making transfer of their blue-eyed people to the location of their choice manually. This exemption is against the spirit of the new policy, the source said.

Sources in the education department said that political intervention in the department has broken all previous records. All the elected people in the current government are interested in the transfer and postings of the teachers and even after the introduction of the new policy, a rush of the political people can be seen in the department despite lockdown and closure of majority of the government offices in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.