Ensuring access to quality education and creating employment opportunities that align with the skills and capabilities of the country’s workforce are fundamental responsibilities of the state. Unfortunately, the education system is in a steady decline, and a growing number of educated individuals remain unemployed, trapped in frustration and uncertainty. Government recruitment remains insufficient to meet the actual needs of institutions, while available vacancies are burdened with ill-conceived and restrictive regulations that further complicate the process. This crisis is particularly severe in Punjab, where the situation has reached alarming proportions.
Experience is being required even for general government recruitments. An unemployed individual who is already struggling to find a job matching their education is expected to possess experience. The situation is such that all provinces, except Punjab, have a job age limit of 38 to 40 years. However, Punjab still adheres to the over_age limit. Meanwhile, government institutions are hardly making any recruitments to fill vacant positions. Educated unemployed individuals are becoming overage while waiting to apply for these recruitments and are being pushed out of the race for government jobs.
The gravity of the situation is underscored by the fact that no recruitment has been made for General Educators in the Education Department since 2019. According to a report, approximately 65% of permanent teacher positions in Punjab's government schools, including senior teachers and headmasters, remain vacant, equivalent to around 100,000 unfilled seats. Furthermore, about 79% of Subject Specialist positions (4,404 seats) in High and Higher Secondary Schools are vacant. Additionally, 6,876 teaching positions across various grades are unfilled in Punjab's public colleges. The Higher Education Department's report highlights that around 1,993 lecturer positions are required in Punjab's 825 public colleges alone.
On one hand, unemployment is rising beyond all limits. On the other, the Education Department — which forms the cornerstone of any nation’s training and development — has been reduced to a mere ‘makeshift scheme’.Despite the availability of a highly qualified workforce, some of these vacant positions are being filled by appointing educated unemployed individuals as daily-wage contract teachers (CTIs and STIs), offering them no job security or permanent employment prospects.
Educational institutions are suffering further decline due to privatization and the contract system, which exploit educated unemployed individuals. The recruitment process for STIs and CTIs is governed by an irrational rule that prioritizes academic marks over merit, with interviews carrying a mere five-marks weightage. This raises concerns, as a candidate's knowledge and abilities are not adequately assessed, and merit is determined solely by degree marks. Notably, the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) has abolished the academic marks criterion; why is this unfair principle still being applied to STI and CTI appointments?
Permanent recruitment has been effectively abolished in Punjab, and now a new regulation requires registration fees for temporary, daily-wage appointments, further exacerbating the issue. As the online application date for the recent School Teacher Interns approached, candidates were required to pay a non-refundable registration fee of one thousand rupees to apply for a single position in a school. Since STI recruitment is limited to the candidate's own union council, if an individual applies for two positions in the same school or two different schools within their union council, they must pay two thousand rupees per position, and if applying for four positions, they must pay four thousand rupees in registration fees. Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat justified this, stating that the fee was introduced because there was a large number of applicants for daily-wage positions last time.
What an egregious injustice this is! The registration fee for permanent positions in PPSC and FPSC is a mere six hundred rupees, whereas candidates are required to pay one thousand rupees simply to be considered for a temporary, daily-wage position in a handful of schools within a single union council. Are the authorities cognizant of the fact that, amidst this escalating inflation, an unemployed individual is expected to arrange such a sum merely for the hope of a temporary appointment.?
The Education Minister is aware of the six lakh applications, but seems to overlook the desperation and need behind them. If unemployment is rampant, the state should focus on creating job opportunities, not extinguishing the hopes of the jobless.
The plight of young individuals, who have toiled for years to earn their degrees and are now wandering in search of employment, is truly pitiable. It is imperative that their hard work and aspirations are not ravaged by the imposition of such illogical and inequitable rules and regulations. Rather, the provision of employment opportunities must be facilitated to salvage their potential and propel the country to progress.
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