CM asked to relax criterion for teachers’ recruitment

The Sindh education department has forwarded a summary to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to decrease minimum passing marks from 60 per cent to 50 per cent for tests conducted last year to recruit teachers for government schools in the province.

A statement issued on Wednesday stated that the summary to this effect had been forwarded on the orders of Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah. The tests in question were conducted in October and November 2018 under the 2017 recruitment policy by the Sukkur Institute of Business Administration for the recruitment of 6,000 junior elementary school teachers and 1,190 early childhood teachers.

The summary for decreasing the minimum passing marks has been sent in view of the shortcomings, defects, and errors in the tests as pointed out in the public discourse on the issue on print, electronic, and social media.

According to the education department’s summary, if the original rule of minimum 60 per cent marks for passing the test was followed, a very few candidates would pass the test which would be a serious setback to the recruitment campaign launched by the provincial government to fill the vacancies of teachers in the government-run schools. In case, the education department decided to hold again recruitment tests, it would result in the loss of an entire academic year of the government-run schools in the province as no teachers would be there to teach the students.

The summary states that a mere 24 per cent candidates would pass the test if the minimum 60 per cent passing marks were maintained by the government, whereas, 76 per cent candidates would pass the test if the passing criteria was brought down to 50 per cent.