Nearly 44,000 teaching positions in government schools across Punjab have been scrapped, according to insiders in the Punjab School Education Department, following the decision to outsource thousands of schools.
The responsibility of hiring teachers now lies with private management, who will do so under their policies.
Educators have expressed concern, warning that the move will worsen unemployment among the province’s youth.
Sources revealed the department has opted to eliminate these positions at a time when thousands of qualified young people have been waiting for new teaching jobs since the last recruitment round in 2018.
Despite years of appeals from teacher unions to fill vacant roles, the demand remained unmet.
Currently, government schools are struggling with a shortfall of nearly 100,000 teachers, severely affecting both the quality of education and employment opportunities.
“The Punjab School Education Department has decided to abolish about 44,000 posts and to transfer teachers from the outsourced schools to other institutions,” a senior official confirmed.
Official figures show that 43,960 posts in outsourced schools are being removed, which accounts for roughly 15% of all teaching positions in the department.
So far, around 10,000 schools in Punjab have been handed over to private entities, with instructions sent to district authorities that hiring for these schools will no longer be handled by the government and the corresponding posts should be considered abolished.
Ammara Rasheed, an MPhil student, shared her dismay with The Express Tribune, calling the news “shocking.” She said many qualified youth had aged out of eligibility while waiting for government teaching jobs over the past seven years.
In contrast, provincial education ministry spokesperson Noorul Huda stated that the teaching posts had not been abolished, clarifying, “those who had taken over the control of the outsourced schools would recruit their teachers.”