KARACHI: Sindh government has planned to upgrade the status of primary school teachers by elevating them to higher categories after nine and 15 years of service.
The provincial government has also agreed to remove the requirement for primary teachers to have a B.Ed degree in order to receive a raise in their basic pay scale (BPS), allowing 15,000 primary school teachers in the province to advance.
Teachers who have completed 15 years of service will be given a BPS-16, while those who have finished nine years of service will be given a BPS-15, according to the specifications.
In October of this year, the Sindh cabinet approved a proposal to relax the teacher recruitment criteria after only a small number of candidates passed the IBA Sukkur test for over 40,000 positions.
Only 11,549 candidates passed the test for primary school teachers (PSTs) out of a total of 32,510 seats in the province, according to the meeting.
In the same way, 14,000 candidates took the test for junior elementary school teachers (JESTs), with a total of 14.039. Unfortunately, only 1,385 candidates were chosen.
The meeting advocated lowering the passing criterion for special candidates from 55 percent to 33 percent, while the education department proposed lowering the passing criteria for women from 55 percent to 50 percent. The passing percentage for minorities candidates was recommended to be set at 50%.
Sindh’s cabinet has approved the plans.
