Punjab colleges to hire over 2,000 college teaching interns

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Khalid Khattak
In order to overcome the shortage of teaching staff at public sector colleges of the province, the Punjab Higher Education Department has decided to recruit College Teaching Interns (CTIs) as a stopgap arrangement.

It is learnt the department will soon advertise over 2,000 posts of CTIs who will work against vacant posts including those of lecturers and assistant professors in different colleges across the province. The basic qualification required for CTIs is set as MA/MSc while both male and female teachers would be hired.

A meeting chaired by Secretary Higher Education Ahad Khan Cheema and attended by Directors Colleges from all Divisions of Punjab, was held here on Tuesday to finalise the arrangement.

An official of the department said the experience gained through teaching as CTIs would also be taken into account in case any of the candidates wanted to be appointment as lecturer through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

He said college principals would be authorized to make all these temporary appointments in consultation with respective divisional directors colleges.

It is pertinent to mention that, last year, the Higher Education Department had appointed around 2,000 Honrary Teaching Assistants (HTAs) against a monthly salary of Rs 8,000. The HTAs had to face great trouble as most of them were paid after three or four months.

To a question, an official of the department said the term HTAs was replaced with CTIs to make it clear that the candidates belonged to college side as, earlier, there was misunderstanding that HTAs were also involved in school education. He added the CTIs service period would continue till the appointment of regular incumbent.

The official said, keeping in view the agitation by HTAs in the past, all the fresh interns would be clearly informed that they were not entitled to be confirmed in any case.

“The department had to face extreme pressure last year when dozens of HTAs protested and demanded regularization of their services”, he added.

When asked how man seats were vacant in colleges across the province, DPI Colleges Abdul Razzaq Cheema said there were around 2,500 posts vacant in colleges of the province, adding the recruitment process of regular incumbent was going on through the PPSC.

Secretary Higher Education Ahad Khan Cheema, when contacted, said the posts of CTIs would be advertised soon, adding this year Rs 10,000 monthly salary would be paid to each intern unlike last year when they were offered Rs 8000 per month.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=207910