KHYBER: The education department in Khyber has suspended second shift classesin at least two schools in Landi Kotal and also terminated the contract of at least 10 young teachers.
Officials said that second shift classes were started in government middle school Abdul Latif Khan Kalay and government primary school No.
2 in Landi Kotal few months back with the aim to attract more students and increase enrolment of school children.
They said that despite the fact that the ten contract teachers were regularly drawing their monthly salaries; the enrolment could not be increased.
They said that after repeated reminders and several assessments carried out by the monitoring teams, the strength of the two schools could not reach the required number.’Hardly seven or eight students attended classes in these schools, whereas the minimum requirement for a second shift was 25 students in each school,’ they said, adding that they had to discontinue the ‘service’ after the required criteria could not be met despite repeatedly reminding the teachers concerned to increase student enrolment.
Officials said that the ten contract teachers were more interested in their monthly salaries rather than making efforts for enrolment of more students.
Meanwhile, the ten teachers whose services were abruptly terminated demanded resumption of the second shift classesin two designated schools along with payment of their salaries.
They said that the second shift was stopped without any prior notices to them. They demanded of the provincial education department to not only restart the second shift classes but also release their two months salaries.