Rawalpindi- More than 50,000 posts of teachers are lying vacant in Punjab schools, while about 1700 schools are functioning without heads, raising questions about the standard of education in government run educational institutions.
According to sources, 50,000 educators have not been regularized, despite passage of orders by the Chief Minister some three years back. There are some 15,000 posts lying vacant in primary, middle and high schools but no promotion orders have been issued by the education department.
The sources said that there is acute shortage of furniture, class rooms in 26,000 schools which are also without boundary walls raising questions about the security of the students and teachers in the given environment.
Another disturbing feature is that in government run schools, the number of new admissions is falling, while it is many times more in private run schools and colleges. In fact private schools, have seen a mushroom growth in the last about ten years in every district of the province. So much so that in small towns, private schools have sprung up and the enrolment in them is more than government primary and high schools.
The private schools are charging fee of thousands of rupees, but people prefer to get their children educated there because of falling standard in government schools.
Office bearers of different organizations of teachers in the province, have admitted that the education system is facing multiple problems. They said that they would start a protect movement across from 7th April for the approval of Teachers Charter of demand.