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Friday, April 12, 2024

Sindh education institutions under fire for nepotism and favouritism

Will Sindh government take measures to ensure that the recruitment process remains transparent or this is going to be a mock exercise where money, not merit, shall determine the final selection?

In a latest development, the Sindh Education Department has decided to recruit 1500 lecturers of various subjects in colleges of the province to end the shortage of teachers. It is worth noting that Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) was recently under social backlash for alleged favoritism and nepotism.

The College Education Department has decided to lift the ban on the appointments with the recruitment of 1500 lecturers of grade 17. According to statistics, over 98 (male/female) lecturers are required in the subject of Chemistry; 67 male and 54 female lecturers for Mathematics; 154 for Physics; 172 for English; 144 for Urdu and 86 for Pakistan Studies.

Read more: 24% Increase in Sindh’s education budget; what will it achieve?

It may be noted here that there is a shortage of over 2500 subject teachers in the colleges across the province.

SPSC faces criticism

According to report published by Urdu Point, a large number of candidates, who were declared unsuccessful in Sindh Public Service Commission’s Combined Competitive Examination on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration against alleged manipulation in final result of CCE-18 here, in front of head office of the commission.

https://twitter.com/DrAliMallah/status/1217006698742894592?s=20

The protesting candidates while chanting slogans against the management of the provincial Public Service Commission, alleged that the management of SPSC had committed gross misconduct by deliberately preferred candidates whose the relatives of officers of the Commission.

The protesting candidates have alleged that sons, daughters and other relatives of officers of Sindh Public Service Commission had been declared successful in the examination by manipulating the actual result of the competitive examination.

Read more: Sindh Cabinet approved Bill to restore student unions, PPP deserves credit where it is due

They said a petition in this regard had already been filed in honorable Sindh High Court for conducting investigation regarding authenticity of the provincial civil services examination conducted by Sindh Public Service Commission.

Results challenged before SHC

Petitioner Muhammad Ayoub Panhwar, who appeared in CCE-2018 at Hyderabad Center pleaded in the petition that he qualified the written test and appeared in viva voce but was not considered for any post deliberately. Chief Secretary Sindh, Chairman SPSC and others have been made respondents in the petition. Petitioner requested the court to restrain the respondents to declare the result of CCE-2018 till final disposal of this petition and handover the record, results, merit list, award lists, interview dockets, mark statement register of CCE-2018 conducted by SPSC Hyderabad to court and same be kept in safe custody with the Nazir of this Court till final disposal of the petition, as there is serious apprehension that the respondents will manipulate the record to hide their illegalities and irregularities.

Read more: Sindh police takes a step forward, signs MOU with education institutions

Muhammad Ayoub also pleaded the court to declare the interview result of CCE-2018 as null & void as the respondents have lost their credibility and a retired judge of high court may be requested to conduct an enquiry of all the allegations/mishaps and also re-conduct the viva voce of all the written qualified candidates of CCE-2018 and in future a well reputed Judge of high court be made part of interview committee/panel of all the competitive examinations.

It is yet to be seen how does the SPSC justify its position but one thing is clear that the Sindh government needs to review the current organizational setup of the recruiting body.