The new recruitment system is an attempt to create a uniform standard for candidates who belong to different educational backgrounds and make merit and transparency the basis of the recruitment process.
The earlier recruitment mechanism left ample room for manipulation and allowed those with political clout to place candidates of their own choice against advertised posts. Teacher recruitment and service rules were amended in 2012 with an aim to recruit those who are successful in the NTS, in addition to holding professional teacher education degrees (PTC, CT, ADE, BEd etc).
According to Peshawar District Education Officer Sharif Gul, the new system of recruitment has addressed the issue of interference from politicians and eliminated the chance of under-qualified candidates entering the system. A teacher who spoke to The Express Tribune corroborates this claim. “I am very happy because once you have a permanent job you can easily climb up the ladder now whereas in the past, if you were well-connected politically you could get a government job regardless of how unqualified you are.”
Malik Khalid, the president of the All Primary Teachers Association, also appreciated this initiative by the government of K-P and added it had automatically raised the bar for teachers. He urged the government, however, to release the teachers’ salaries that have been pending for the past four months. He also urged the provincial government to transfer them from a contract to a permanent basis as soon as possible.
However, not everyone is satisfied with the changes in the recruitment process. “Even if you appear for the NTS, you still have to hold a professional teacher education qualification such as the PTC, Certificate in Teaching (CT), Associate Degree in Education (ADE), BEd degree, which in my opinion is not necessary,” says another teacher. “Most of the people who clear the test are graduates from Peshawar University and hence, [the requirement] to take the PTC, CT, ADE, MEd courses becomes quite unnecessary,” he says, adding that if a person is well-educated, she or he can easily be trained in teaching skills in a few months.
Once the teaching candidates clear the test and acquire a professional teacher education qualification, they are hired on a contract which is renewed every year and changed to a permanent basis after an average of two to four years. Each teacher is hired in one of the following three categories: a) primary school teachers which is a BPS-12 position and earns Rs7,000 to Rs22,000 per month; b) Pre-senior primary school teachers which is a BPS-14 position and is paid anywhere between Rs8,000 to Rs26,300 per month; or c) Primary school head teachers, a BPS-15 position, is paid a monthly salary ranging between Rs8,500 and Rs29,500. The government employees receive an annual increment according to rank or grade, respectively. For example, a grade 12 employee gets a Rs500 raise annually whereas a grade 16 officer receives a Rs800 incremental change in his or her compensation package. This increment is in addition to the annual salary raise announced by the government in each budget.
In order to tackle the issue of teacher shortages in far-flung areas of the districts, a new procedure of union council/school-based recruitment has also been introduced for primary school teachers for the first time. Gul explains that according to the new rule, a primary school teacher recruited for a school in his or her local or nearest union council would not be posted anywhere else during their service in order to overcome the shortage of teachers in rural areas. “They have to apply for a post in a particular school and the top scoring candidate will be given the job and will serve the rest of their career in the same school,” he says. “There will be no posting or transfer.”
http://tribune.com.pk/story/856696/teachers-in-k-p-now-enjoy-a-level-playing-field/
I’ve added more information in my last reply in case you are interested. The NTS is an amazing scheme, and it’s a very good way of tackling youth employment as young graduates would be the biggest beneficiaries of such impartial and unformed merit based system. It’s a very new scheme still so I’m interested in seeing the data we get after couple of years.