Government urged to provide teaching staff to Haripur school

HARIPUR: Parents-Teachers Council (PTC) of Higher Secondary School in Beer locality have expressed their concern about the future of their children as the school has been short of teaching staff for the last several years and the authorities failed to fill the vacant posts despite repeated requests.

Through a resolution adopted at a meeting held here on Friday, the PTC’s chairman Chan Zeb and members said that the school had 12 sanctioned posts of subject specialist teachers for science but only five teachers have been bearing the burden of vacant posts of seven teachers for the last four years.

The PTC chairman and members said that in absence of teachers, the studies of their children, especially from the intermediate section, were being adversely affected.

They also pointed out that the seat of senior school teacher (general) had also been lying vacant for a couple of years but despite bringing it in the knowledge of education department officials and political leadership, the problem of teaching staff shortage remained unaddressed.

They said the department had allowed hiring teachers on a temporary basis for fixed monthly pay of Rs15000 but there was not a single teacher ready to teach the students after covering two hours travel distance from Haripur city to Beer and spending Rs400 fare daily.

“How a master degree holder could accept Rs15000 as a monthly salary for teaching, which is much less than the government fixed minimum wage for unskilled factory workers,” questioned Riaz Khan, a member of PTC and former nazim village council Beer.

They also drew the attention of political leadership and education department about the dilapidated condition of more than a century-old school building and added that a former deputy commissioner and MPA had visited the school and promised reconstruction of the building but have not yet fulfilled their promises even after the lapse of one and a half years.

They expressed concern about the safety of children and staff due to the ever-worsening condition of the school building.

Meanwhile, when approached for comments, the school principal Amir Atiq Sidiki confirmed that his school has a shortage of six subject specialists for science, a senior school teacher from the general cadre, and a subject specialist for English for the last several years.

He conceded that the shortage of teaching staff in his school was one of the biggest problems he has been facing after taking the charge. He said that he himself was teaching the subject of physics to the students of the first and second year, due to which his administration work often suffered. He also demanded early appointment of teachers on vacant posts.