QUETTA  -  Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind on Friday said that 9000 more teachers would be recruited under the contract policy on merit basis in order to achieve target of quality education in the province.

He expressed these view while addressing a press conference at Chief Minister Secretariat here.

Shahid Rind said that the provincial government has formulated a clear strategy to solve other governance problems in a short period of time.  He said that significant steps were being taken to improve quality of education through more recruitment of teachers to reopen several closed schools in respective area of the province which were closed by shortage of educators.  He said that on which the provincial government decided to recruit teachers at the local level under the contract policy and merit was determined by comparing the marks of the candidate’s educational degrees. Seeing this merit system, many people started trying to obtain degrees with the highest marks and we had received some complaints that efforts have been made to obtain fake degrees, he complained.

He said that initially, these complaints were received from Kohlu and Dera Bugti, on which Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Sarfraz Bugti took notice of it and directed Anti-Corruption Establishment to investigate the case of fake degrees in the areas.

The spokesperson said that important decisions have been taken in a high-level meeting chaired by Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti to prevent the scourge of cheating in the province.

He said that it has been decided in the meeting to appoint superintendents in examination centers from administrative officers instead of teachers, besides CCTV cameras in 430 examination centers across Balochistan would be installed as well as to hire the services of Frontier Corps (FC).

If any unrelated persons other than the candidates are found within 300 meters of the examination centers, an FIR will be registered against them, he said.

Shahid Rind said that the number of contract teachers mentioned for recruitment is about 4,000, in addition, orders for the appointment of about 3,891 teachers under the test interviews conducted under the administration of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University would also be issued by next week.

He said that as soon as this phase is completed, Phase 2 of teacher recruitment would be started in which about 9000 more teachers to be recruited under the contract policy on merit.

The provincial government has decided to improve the salary package of these contract teachers so that the teachers focus on providing education with full effort and attention, he said.

He marked that merit could be ensured in all these phases and if at any stage any candidate is found guilty of fake degree or any illegal act, he would not only be disqualified from any government job for three years but legal action would also be taken against him.

Shahid Rind added that the continuity of educational reforms would be maintained in Balochistan and the media and the public could be kept informed about the steps that would be taken in this regard from time to time for betterment of education.