LAHORE: Before schools across Punjab closed for the summer vacation in May this year, a surprising issue came to light: more than 46,000 government teachers in the province were found to be surplus, meaning they were posted at public schools that didn’t actually need them.
This was revealed in a briefing to Punjab’s Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat here on 04-July-2025. The School Education Department (SED) officials revealed that hundreds of government schools across the province were either overstaffed or severely understaffed. In response, the minister announced a major reshuffling of teaching staff to be carried out before schools reopen in early August 2025.
The imbalance in teacher deployment across Punjab’s schools also raises concerns about the performance of the SED Punjab, which is responsible for staff transfers and postings. It also puts a spotlight on the department’s online transfer system, which has been in place for several years. It’s unclear why SED officials, or the system itself, failed to address the surplus teacher issue through proper planning and placement.
According to the School Information System (SIS), the SED Punjab has 441,718 sanctioned teaching positions. Out of these, only 317,232 are currently filled, leaving 124,486 teaching posts vacant. Combined with the mismatch in teacher deployment, where many teachers are placed where they aren’t needed, this shortage is a serious problem. It’s having a direct impact on students’ education across the province. Rana Sikandar Hayat directed immediate implementation of a teacher rationalisation policy.
As per the details, starting 15 July, the process will begin to reshuffle surplus teachers to schools where their services are urgently needed. Applications will be received until 20 July, and the transfers are expected to be finalised by 23 July.
The minister’s spokesperson Noor-ul-Huda also shared official data with journalists according to which over 27,000 schools in Punjab currently have more teachers than required, while more than 33,000 schools are facing teacher shortages. As per the stats, the most glaring gap is in primary schools, where 13,000 schools host a surplus of 20,948 teachers, while 13,846 other primary schools need an additional 23,648 teachers to meet the required student-teacher ratio. The mismatch continues at the elementary level, where 5,940 schools are overstaffed with 12,533 surplus teachers.
Meanwhile, 15,884 elementary schools are short of 18,017 teachers. Even at the secondary level, 634 schools have 888 surplus teachers who could be reallocated where needed while 6,713 secondary schools need 8,544 more teachers to function properly. The minister believes this rationalisation reform will not only help to improve education outcomes but will also save the provincial government billions of rupees annually in wasted resources.
Published in News Daily on 05-July-2025.
