PESHAWAR: The former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government did not implement its own decision to hire female staff for primary schools, a local media outlet reported on Sunday.
The KP government had decided in February last year to hire female staff after proposals from the elementary and secondary education department which suggested that female teachers are more attached to their students than their male counterparts.
Officials say that approximately 17,000 teachers are in the process of being hired for primary, middle and higher secondary schools and that male teachers would be appointed to teach boys in primary schools and vice versa.
A district education officer denied he had received any directives to hire only female staff for both boys and girls primary schools.
An educationist explained that in some areas of KP, it is often difficult to find qualified female teachers and that the government needs to relax the criteria for hiring.
A senior official of the education department, however, said that PTI government’s decision last year would be implemented in the near future, over a year later.
“Only female teachers would be appointed to fill the vacant posts at primary schools for boys,” he said.
The official explained that the hiring would be a gradual process whereby male teachers would be replaced by females.
