Most public schools in rural Attock struggling with shortage of teachers

Attock - A growing imbalance in teacher deployment has left most public sector schools in rural areas of Attock district struggling with an acute shortage of teaching staff, while their urban counterparts continue to have teachers in surplus, officials and education sources said. The disparity, which has persisted for years due to a freeze on regular recruitment, is now directly affecting the quality of education for thousands of students in far-flung areas of the district. According to sources in the education department, no regular recruitment of teachers has been carried out in Attock for the last many years. To fill the gaps, the government has been appointing School Teacher Interns (STIs) on a temporary basis. However, education officials say the policy has failed to address the crisis in rural schools. 'In rural areas, highly qualified candidates are not available to apply for STI positions,' a source told The Nation. 'As a result, many sanctioned posts remain vacant even after repeated advertisements.' JI to hold protest rally today at Liaquat Bagh against petroleum prices The source added that urban schools, on the other hand, attract a large number of applicants, leading to a surplus of teachers in cities and tehsil headquarters while village schools continue to operate with minimal staff. Another major reason behind the crisis, according to department insiders, is the lack of authority among education officers to transfer surplus teachers on administrative grounds. 'The education officers are toothless when it comes to rationalization,' the source said. 'They cannot transfer teachers from schools where there is a surplus to schools where there is an acute shortage. Because of this, we have schools in urban areas with extra teachers sitting idle, and schools in rural areas with just one or two teachers for all classes.' Lahore FIA arrests three over alleged illegal passport fees The officials urged the provincial government to relax transfer and posting policies specifically for rural area schools and to give district education authorities more powers to balance the staff. The problem is compounded by the Student-Teacher Ratio (STR) policy which mandates one teacher for every 40 students. Educationists in the district argue that the policy does not reflect ground realities in rural schools. 'Under STR, these 40 students may belong to different classes, from grade 1 to grade 5, and each class has different subjects,' a senior teacher from a rural school said. Punjab targets 100pc birth registration in 100 model villages 'How can a single teacher handle 40 students of different classes with different subjects at the same time? It is practically impossible.' Teachers said the result is overcrowded multi-grade classrooms where neither students nor teachers can perform effectively. Many schools are forced to combine classes, leaving younger students with little attention and older students unprepared for higher classes. The crisis is further deepened by a shortage of head teachers. Many rural schools in Attock are currently operating without a permanent head, leaving administrative work, record-keeping, and coordination with the education department incomplete. PFA destroys 1,000-kg rotten meat at illegal slaughterhouse in Shahdara Teachers also pointed to the 'no pass-fail' policy up to the elementary level as another challenge. They said that because students are automatically promoted regardless of performance, learning gaps accumulate year after year. By the time students reach middle and high school, many lack basic reading and math skills, making it even harder for the limited staff to teach effectively. Teachers, parents, and local educationists have urged the Punjab government and the education department to take immediate steps to address the imbalance. Key demands include immediate recruitment of teachers with a special quota for rural areas, relaxation of qualification and domicile requirements for rural postings to ensure vacancies are filled, empowering district education officers to transfer surplus teachers from urban to rural schools on administrative grounds reviewing the STR policy to make it class-specific rather than school-wide, filling vacant head teacher positions on a priority basis. 'Our children in villages deserve the same quality of education as children in the city,' said a parent from Pindi Gheb. 'But right now, one teacher is handling five classes in a single room. This is not education, this is just managing.' Education experts say that without urgent policy intervention and recruitment, the learning outcomes in rural Attock will continue to decline, widening the gap between urban and rural education in the district. This journalist contacted a few education officers for their comments but no one was ready to comment. ===== Tags: public schoolsruralattock