College teachers decry delay in promotions

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Government’s college teachers have expressed annoyance over the delay in holding the meeting of Departmental Selection Board (DSB) by the concerned authorities.

According to an official source, over 40 posts of male and female teachers of BS-19 in the educational institutions had been lying vacant including 20 posts of Associate Professors in Federal Government colleges since long.

The previous meeting of DSB was held on 4th September 2019.Professor Mehdi Hussain said, “The meeting of Departmental selection Board (DSB) supposed to be held twice a year depending on the vacant posts but unfortunately it was not held despite the available vacant posts of Associate Professors (male and female). “If 20 Assistant Professors get promotion, it will have a trickle-down effect as 20 posts of Assistant Professor will be vacant and lecturers could be promoted later on,” he told this agency.

A female teacher on the condition of anonymity said, “The officers of other departments and ministries get rapid promotion but process of teachers promotion is exceptionally slow and usually they have to wait for decades.

Teachers who are considered as nation builders have been deliberately deprived of their fundamental rights by the concerned authorities. They have been marginalized and put against the wall. The career of teachers is in utter hazard due to general neglect of the department , she said.

Ms. Ayesha a lecturer at Islamabad Model College for Girls (Postgraduate) F-7/2 said, delay in promotion, unfortunately, demoralises the teachers and creates distress and frustration among them which may badly affect the efficiency of a teacher in the classroom.

There is a need for recognition of the deserving teachers through granting them promotion in a timely manner, she said, adding that DPC for the grant of higher time-scale should also meet without delay for giving relief to the Islamabad’s teaching community as the grant of time scale for lecturers is pending for the last over eight years.

A representative of Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA), Professor Tahir Mahmood said, Assistant Professors are deprived of their due promotion to the posts of Associate Professors as the meeting of DSB have not been convened yet. He requested the Secretary Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training for an early holding of the meeting.