10 complainants asked to submit cases

Karachi
The Sindh education department’s committee formed to probe teachers’ recruitment has invited 10 complainants to present their cases before the body. The committee met at the Sindh Secretariat on Friday.
The department has initiated a process for reviewing teachers’ grievances with around 50 cases reviewed so far.
The four-member committee is chaired by Special Secretary Schools Alia Shahid, with Zakir Shah, the additional secretary schools, Saba Mahmood, chief programme manager at the Reform Support Unit, and Section Officer Fahim Ahmed Chachar as members.
“We are looking at complaints as per the Teachers’ Recruitment Policy 2012,” said Alia Shahid, adding, “The government is determined to introduce merit as the criteria for teacher recruitment. But we are also committed to hear and resolve all genuine grievances.”
The complaints are reviewed in detail and the status of each case is checked on the spot, Aalia claimed.
The purpose of the enquiry committee is to address grievances and issues related to the recruitment of teachers through the National Testing Service (NTS) in a fair and transparent manner and in the process to develop a mechanism for the systematic redressal of complaints.
Zakir Shah said, “So far 1,600 cases filed in the courts have been decided in the government’s favour.” “This shows that the court also appreciates the fairness of the recruitment policy,” he asserted.
But as with all new systems, there are issues regarding implementation. The enquiry committee is a mechanism to help resolve these issues and to derive lessons for the future.
“Every complainant is given ample time to state their case and present supporting documents,” said Saba Mahmood. “We then examine each case in detail.”
The complaints received so far are mostly related to implementation policy.
The NTS is a firm hired through competitive bidding in November 2012 to conduct written tests of candidates applying for the positions of primary school teacher (PST), junior school teacher (JST) and high school teacher (HST). The tests for HST were conducted in December 2012 and for JST and PST in January 2013, one of the committee member mentioned.
The results of the tests were shared by the NTS with the RSU, which is supported by the World Bank. The results were also posted on the NTS website, another committee member said.
The documents of qualifying candidates were verified by district recruitment committees and their recommendations were approved by the WB, which issued no objection letters before offer orders were issued to the successful candidates, he expressed.
According to the committee, around 20, 000 vacancies were available whereas 480, 000 candidates appeared for the NTS of which 178,000 candidates were declared passed.
As per criteria, 60 percent marks are required to pass the written test and to promote girls’ education and bring more female teachers into the teaching force, female candidates who achieve 60 percent marks or above are awarded an additional 20 marks.