Poor promotion prospects causing brain drain from colleges

Islamabad : The teachers of Islamabad’s government colleges are fast becoming discontented with their job due to limited career growth prospects.

They insist that as there has been no change in their service structure for more than two and a half decades, more and more disgruntled members of their community, especially with higher education qualifications, are going to the neighbouring provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab to avail themselves of better chances for promotion.

These teachers are promoted in line with the 1991 four-tier formula (service structure), which is prevalent in provinces, too.

Though the education departments of Khyber-Pakhtun-khwa and Punjab have revised that formula making the college job rewarding, the federal authorities have yet to do to the dejection of teachers of Islamabad’s public sector colleges.

The four-tier formula divides members of the college faculty into four basic pay scales.

Currently, half of the capital’s college teachers serve in BPS-17 as lecturers, 34 per cent in BPS-18 as assistant professors, 15 per cent in BPS-19 as associate professors and the rest in BPS-20 as professors. That promotion ladder ends at BPS-20.

As Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab revised the formula in 2012 increasing the rates for higher tiers of service structure, they’ve far more teachers in higher pay scales than Islamabad’s. Of the total faculty strength in colleges, KP has five per cent teachers (professors) in BPS-20, 20 per cent (associate professors) in BPS-19, 37 per cent (assistant professors) in BPS-18 and 38 per cent lecturers in BPS-17, while Punjab’s three per cent teachers are professors, 19 per cent associate professors, 36 per cent and 42 per cent lecturers.

Now as their service structure hasn’t been changed for a long time, more and more federal government teachers with domiciles of KP and Punjab are seeking their department’s mandatory nod to serve in own provinces to claim speedy promotion.

An official at the Federal Directorate of Education, which oversees Islamabad’s public sector colleges, claimed that around 50 teachers applied for the departmental permission certificate lately for their transfer to educational institutions in provinces of choice, while many had already left the federal government service that way.

He insisted that revision of the 1991 four-tier formula for such teachers wasn’t currently under consideration.

A local college lecturer told ‘The News’ that the existing four-tier formula for Islamabad’s educational institutions had most slots for assistant professors and lecturers promising teachers little likelihood of being promoted.

He also complained that it was ironic that the college teachers couldn’t be promoted beyond BPS-20 under the rules though officials of the ministries and divisions had the right to BPS-21 and BPS-22 promotion.

Farzana Akram, who teaches at a model college of Islamabad, also claimed that promotion prospects for teachers in provinces were far better than those in the federal capital.

She said a good service structure ensured better performance of teachers and thus, furthering the cause of education.

“The absence of a good service structure has a negative bearing on the efficiency of employees,” she said.

A leader of the Federal Government College Teachers Association also resented the ‘denial’ of adequate promotion chances to teachers saying many of them, especially those with PhD and MPhil degrees, are leaving for provinces out of desperation to claim promotion.

He demanded the federal government offer its teachers better career growth prospects to stop that brain drain.