TRANSFER POLICY OF HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT-2013

TRANSFER POLICY OF HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT-2013

PREAMBLE

In order to ensure merit based opportunities and equitable horizontal mobility amongst teaching staff of various educational institutions, situated at hard as well as soft areas of the province, the following Transfer Policy is hereby approved, in continuation of Department’s Transfer Policy dated 14.06.2011, to streamline the process of transfers / postings of the teaching/administrative staff in the Higher Education Department (HED).

1.   TIMELINE FOR TRANSFERS

          

  Since HED is synchronizing its yearly scheduled activities with commencement and closure of financial year, teaching staff will be provided with an opportunity to get themselves transferred to the college / station of their choice, through an automated merit-based procedure. This opportunity of request based transfers will be provided to them once a year during the month of July only, whereas for the remaining period of the year, there shall be a complete ban on all kinds of transfers in the HED, with the exception of certain cases explicitly specified in the Transfer Policy, 2013. In this regard, following Schedule of Activities is proposed to be followed in future, for transfers of Assistant Professors and Lecturers, during the month of July & August :- 

Sr. No.	Action		Responsibility		Time Period / Date
a.	Updating of Seniority Lists		HED/DPI		May-Before June 1st
b.	Updating of the main database of HED in terms of vacancy positions, students data and subject-wise STRs.		MIS Cell of HED		7-days before June 15th
c.	Lifting of Ban on transfers		HED		June 15th
d.	Generation of Division-wise lists of all vacant/filled/sanctioned posts available in all colleges, separately for each subject, in		1:     MIS Cell of HED shall be responsible to generate latest division-wise vacancy position throughout		7-days after June 15th
	respect of each college, by MIS cell in HED as well as the DPI Colleges.		the province. 2: DPI Colleges through Director Colleges, of each Division.
e.	Reconciliation of data of MIS and DPI, and identification/removal of discrepancies (if any)		1: DS Concerned		7-days (Before 30th June)
f.	Display of the all the vacant posts in the offices of HED/DPI Colleges/Director Colleges, as well as website of HED, for information of all concerned		•                  MIS Cell of HED to display lists •                  DPI(Colleges) to display lists •                  DE(Colleges) to display lists		3-days  (1st Week of July)
g.	Orientation / Training of Directors about parameters of Transfer Policy		MIS Cell of HED		One day
h.	Receipt of applications /
	requests for transfers on prescribed Performa, duly vetted by the Principal or his/her authorized officer. •        Inter-divisional request of A.Ps and Lecturers •        Lecturers (within divisions) and A.P		•        DPI (Colleges) •        DE(Colleges)		7- days
i.	Data Entry/Scrutiny/Processing of application		•        DPI(Colleges) •        DE(Colleges)		3-days after closing date of receipts of applications for transfer
j.	Issuance and display of transfer orders in the offices of HED/DPI Colleges/Director Colleges, as well as website of HED, for information of all concerned.		•                  MIS Cell of HED to display lists •                  DPI(Colleges) to display lists •                  DE(Colleges) to display lists		1 day
k.	1st Representation before “Review  Committee” before		 Director Colleges & Representative		7-days
	Original Transferring Authority			of DPI Colleges
				DPI Colleges & SO of Concerned Section in HED
l.	2nd   Representation “Appeal Committee” Appellate Authority	before of	•                    •	DPI Colleges & SO of Concerned Section in HED, in case of orders of Director Colleges’ Review Committee. Special Secretary HED, AS Establishment / DS Concerned, in case of orders of DPI Colleges’ Review Committee.	7-days
m.	Imposition of ban			HED	1 day (14th August)

Instructions:

a.   Transfers, subject to the conditions spelt out in the policy ibid, will be made during the month of July / August only, except in case of posts created in the newly established / upgraded institutions or under extreme exigencies as enumerated in Para b, vide infra;

b.   There will be no bar on transfers on administrative / disciplinary, compassionate grounds, mutual transfer cases, wedlock basis, genuine / specific hardship cases i.e. medical grounds / death of spouse / physical disability, promotion cases and those awaiting posting, irrespective of the time of the year or tenure / time served in the position held. Likewise, vacancies occurring as resultant of retirement, death etc. will continue to be filled round the year as per routine. Specific features of each case have been spelt out in Section 4, vide infra;

c.    Within two years immediately before superannuation, the teachers shall not be transferred from their place of posting except on administrative / disciplinary / hardship grounds.

d.   Within one year immediately before superannuation, the teachers may be transferred to their home station, to facilitate them in preparation of their retirement documents.

2.   AUTHORITIES FOR TRANSFERS

          

         The authorities for transfer posting of the officers in the Higher Education Department will be as under: 

Authority	TORs of Authority
SECRETARY H.E.D.	1.   All the Administrative posts (Principal, Assistant Directors, Deputy Directors, Directors etc.) 2.   Professors and Associate Professors throughout the province; 3.   First placement after selection through PPSC of Lecturers and above; NOTE: Secretary HED may exercise full authority in respect of all officers in all grades, on case to case basis, in accordance with the Transfer Policy ibid, except those falling under the exclusive jurisdiction of S&GAD. Likewise, Secretary HED may delegate one or more of his functions, upon the Special Secretary HED;
DPI (Colleges)	1.   Inter-divisional Transfers of Lecturers and Assistant Professors throughout the province, only to the extent of placement of Lecturer/AP at the disposal of Director Colleges of the concerned Division for further posting within the Division 2.   First placement after selection through PPSC of Lecturers, who report for joining at HED. They will be referred to DPI (Colleges), who after securing an NOC from the concerned Director, shall place the services of the Lecturer/AP at the disposal of Director Colleges of the concerned Division for further posting within the Division.  3.   Placement of all Lecturers who have joined back after long leave / deputation / study leave etc.,
	referred by HED. DPI after securing an NOC from the concerned Director shall place the services of the Lecturer/AP at the disposal of Director Colleges of the concerned Division for further posting within the Division.
D.E (Colleges)	Transfer of Lecturers and Assistant Professors within a division. In case of inter divisional transfers, Director will issue an NOC for a specific post preferably for the colleges located in the periphery, forward the same to DPI Colleges, who shall place the Lecturer/AP at the disposal of D.E (Colleges), for further posting within Division. It will be mandatory for the DE (Colleges) to maintain log / record of all the NOCs issued by him.  The Director, while making such a transfer, take into account  the seniority, merit  marks secured by contesting candidates, according to the marking criteria specified in the Transfer Policy ibid.

Instructions: 

a.   All directives from the office of the Prime Minister, the Governor, the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary, Punjab, shall be forwarded to the authority concerned as defined above, under the transfer policy;

b.   All requests / applications, for transfers against the vacant posts, must be submitted by the applicants through the office of respective principals, on prescribed Performa (Annex-A), before the relevant Authority indicated above. Any direct application on plain paper that is not received through proper channel shall not be admissible in HED.

c.    The application for inter-divisional transfer must be placed before the DPI Colleges, along with an NOC of the respective Director of Education (Colleges), where the transfer is intended. In case more than one options are given in the application form, separate NOC for each post will be required. The DPI after satisfying himself with regards to NOC, shall place the officer at the disposal of the concerned Director Colleges, who shall transfer the officer concerned to a specific position, according to the merit marks achieved against the respective post. To avoid any duplication or discrepancy, all the offices will share information before issuance of transfer orders. To avoid any duplications in transfers by different authorities, all transfers will be carried out by automated system of transfers after doing the file work in that regard, using the main database maintained in the HED. 

d.   Separate register for receipt of applications on prescribed Performa, shall be maintained at each office. All applications received shall be entered in these registers and receipts thereof shall be issued to the applicants. All such applications will be entered in computer. The subject-wise Student Teacher Ratio (STR) of the present college where the applicant is posted and that college where transfer is requested, will be generated and appended with the application, before further processing. 

e.   All the applications will be processed through computer program “Transfer Engine” and post-specific merit list of all the applicants be generated based on numeric score attained, according to the Marking criteria, laid down in the Section No 3, pertaining to Merit Marks.   

f.     All such applications will be placed before the respective competent authority who shall examine the applications, and award merit marks, strictly according to the laid down criteria, for further necessary action accordingly. The competent authority will issue the transfer orders through the automated system of transfer i.e. the transfer engine, indicating therein officer’s CNIC number and a unique computer system generated number in addition to all other basic information about him / her. Final charge assumption order shall also be issued through the transfer engine, and the system shall be updated automatically. On presentation of transfer orders at a college, the Principal will feed the unique reference/CNIC number of the teacher contained in the transfer orders to the link /interface provided at his end, of the main database of HED generate the charge report. On generation of charge report through automated system, data base at the back end will be automatically updated. This computer printed Charge report when signed by the concerned Principal will be the only valid charge report submitted and communicated for all purposes to all the quarters concerned including the Accountant General and the District Accounts Offices. 

g.   First representation as a consequence of any deviation/departure from the laid down criteria, received after issuance of the transfer orders, shall be placed before the “Review Committee”, consisting of the respective transfer authority and a representative from the higher office in the hierarchy, for disposal strictly on merit. All record in this regard including copy of the decision conveyed to the applicant, will be archived properly, in presentable form. 

h.   Second representation as a consequence of any deviation/departure from the laid down criteria, received after issuance of the orders of the “Review Committee”, shall be placed before “Appeal Committee”, consisting of DPI Colleges and Deputy Secretary of Estab. Section nominated in HED, in case of representation against orders of Director Colleges’ Review Committee or Special Secretary HED & AS Establishment / DS Concerned, in case of orders of DPI Colleges’ Review Committee, for disposal strictly on merit. All record in this regard including copy of the decision conveyed to the applicant, will be archived properly, in presentable form. The Appellate Authority will be empowered to call any record relevant to attend the grievances of the appellant. 

i.     After completion of transfer / posting phase in the month of July each year, each Director of Education (Colleges) shall furnish a consolidated report describing the subject-wise/cadre-wise position of sanctioned/filled/vacant posts, to the DPI (Colleges), by 14^th August for onward submission to HED, where the data shall be reconciled with the database of Transfer Engine, for identification and removal of discrepancies, if any. MIS cell of HED shall ensure that Soft copies in the form of “pdf” file will be communicated simultaneously to all the respective colleges and office of the DPI, for feedback and update of database, as per factual situation, before 14^th August. 

j.     Any exercise of political/undue influence, may entail serious consequences, as per policy of the Government, and the applicant’s request for transfer, may not be entertained. 

3.   MERIT MARKS FOR TRANSFER 

Merit Marks shall be awarded according to the following criteria:

	Marking Criteria	Merit Marks
i.	Qualifications
	1. PhD	1. 5 marks
	2.   M.Phil 3.   Masters	2.   2 marks 3.   1 marks
ii.	For each year served in hard area duly notified by HED (Annexure B)	2 marks (max. upto  10 marks)
iii.	For each year served at place other than desired place of posting / district	1 mark  (max. upto  10 marks)
iv.	Wedlock	2 marks
v.	Widow Case	2 marks
vi.	Physical disability	2 marks
Grand Total

Instructions: 

a.   All the application received on a specific date will be entered the same day and processed in the automated system.

b.   The STR of the relevant subject in both the colleges will be duly considered while arriving at a decision for transfer.

c.    Performance of teaching staff and head of the institutions particularly at the divisional headquarters will be monitored annually. Those producing below average results of the respective boards and universities, will be placed out of periphery notwithstanding any provision of the policy ibid;

d.   Applicants with history of disciplinary cases / departmental inquiries shall not be accorded preference. Similarly applicants with prolonged history of litigation against the department shall not be accorded preference.

e.   In case an applicant is in the last year of his service period, preference shall be attached to his application, for posting on desired post, along with permission to proceed on LPR.

f.     In case more than one application is received / processed for a post, including any application for inter divisional transfer, preference shall be accorded to the candidate securing the highest merit marks.

g.   In case of a tie on merit marks achieved, preference shall be attached according to seniority. If the teacher has not yet been allotted Seniority Number due to some reason, his / her batch of entry into service / last promotion as well as his / her date of birth will be considered for determination of his / her seniority. 

h.   Minimum period next transfer shall not be less than one year.

4.   EXCEPTIONS TO TRANSFER POLICY

a)  MUTUAL TRANSFER

The mutual transfers will be allowed by the competent authorities subject to the availability of the post in that particular subject / discipline. The comments / recommendations of the respective principals will be mandatory to ascertain such requests. The DPI (Colleges) will be the authority for inter-divisional and DE (Colleges) will be the authority for intra-divisional mutual transfers of Lecturers and Assistant Professors. 

b)  TRANSFER ON WEDLOCK BASIS

Subject to the criterion described above and all other things being equal, preference will be given to husband and wife for posting at a station if both are in Government service by giving 5 marks. In case either the spouse being an employee of the department other than Education, that other Department / Organization will also have equal responsibility of keeping the spouses at one station. However, this will not be allowed as a pretext for seeking transfer to Lahore city or other attractive stations. The husband and wife can be united at any station where relevant posts are available.

c)  TRANSFER IN CASE OF GENUINE / SPECIFIC / HARDSHIP CASES If otherwise eligible, the transfer on compassionate grounds may be carried out by the respective authorities, as the case may be, in case of deserving candidates on medical grounds, death of spouse, physical disability etc. subject to satisfaction of the competent authority.

d)  TRANSFER ON ADMINISTRATIVE / DISCIPLINARY GROUNDS

a.       Consequent upon outcome of an inquiry proceedings or reasons satisfactory to shift a teacher on his / her poor academic results, poor conduct and poor performance in administration or managing the financial affairs, an officer / official may be shifted from an Institution / Administrative post by the HED. 

b.       During an academic session if a teacher/s are observed without class / work-load in the time table, or there is no enrollment in any particular subject and teacher/s remain idle, the respective DE(Colleges) will be empowered to shift / transfer such idle teacher to other institutions within the particular division where the demand on STR basis exists. Preference shall be accorded to IT teachers.

c.       The DPI (Colleges) will be the authority for inter-divisional transfers of the officials in BS-1 to BS-16 after ascertaining due NOCs from the respective Principals through concerned DE (Colleges).

d.       Likewise, DE(Colleges) may actualize the transfer of the officials of BS-1 to BS16 on administrative / disciplinary grounds within the respective divisions

5. TRANSFER AGAINST ADMINISTRATIVE POSTS

For the administrative posts of Divisional Directors, panel of 6 eligible officers shall be invited, for interview. Evaluation shall be done according to following criteria:

 

Sr. No.	Field	Marks
1.	Academic Qualification:
	M.A/ MSC M.Phil           Ph.D	10 15 20
2.	Seniority	10
3.	Last five years Performance Evaluation Report	10
4.	Administrative Experience	10
5.	Computer Skill / literate	10
6.	Board / University results of Last Year	5
7.	Communication Skills	5
8.	Interview / Presentation on job description way forward and methodology of ten minutes	30

Instructions: 

a.         The posting against administrative posts will be made after careful scrutiny of service record of the applicant. Those with record of inquiry / disciplinary proceeding carried out or in progress against them, habitual litigant against the department of having poor repute not good, will not be considered for posting on administrative posts.

b.         Normal tenure of posting of Director Public Instruction (Colleges), Director of Education(Colleges), Dy. Director Colleges and Assistant Director Colleges, will be three years, subject to satisfactory performance and administrative convenience.

c.         The transfer and posting against the posts of Principals, will continue to be made by the HED, by calling the panels. In case the requisite numbers of persons are not available for panel, name of suitable persons on district / division basis, may be submitted to the department for consideration.

In case an applicant is in the last two years of his service period, he shall not be considered for any administrative post.

6.     ERATIC POSTING 

a.      The erratic adjustment in any of the following form shall not be made:

i. Against higher / lower post ii.          Against irrelevant subject iii.         On loan basis from one place / institution to the other iv.        One’s own pay and grade

b.     In case of administrative posts, posting in own pay and scale may be made only by the HED, if suitable candidate / officer is not available. It would be temporary arrangement till the availability of a regular incumbent. Similarly, for administrative reasons / requirements, only HED will have the authority for temporary attachment of teachers / officials with any office /officer to meet the exigencies.

c.      Erratic posting already in vogue will be gradually rectified, in the following manner:

i. Whenever a regular selectee of PPSC is available. ii.            Adjustments / postings of freshly promoted officers. 

iii. Re-adjustments / conversions as a result of rationalization exercise. iv. Re-adjustment of erratic posting / adjustments against regular posts.

In case when need is generated for up-gradation / down-gradation of posts, change of nomenclature or the shifting of the posts, the case will be referred to the HED for necessary action / approval. Only after receiving the due authorization, such transfer cases will be disposed off by the respective authorities. 

7.     TRANSFER OF SINGLE TEACHER

a.       The single teacher in a subject, if otherwise eligible, will be allowed transfer during the month of July only. 

b.       The single teacher if qualifies, will be considered for transfer to his / her station of choice and the junior most in that subject in the city or nearby station, may be provided as his / her substitute.

c.       In case no substitute teacher is available, the respective principal may be empowered to hire the services of teacher/s  as stop-gap arrangement on the criteria of hiring faculty for 2^nd shift, from college own resources after due approval of the college council, till a regular incumbent or CTI is available in that particular subject. No additional funds shall be provided by the HED for this purpose.

d.       The principal will place request for hiring services of CTIs against all the vacant posts in his / her college for due sanction / authorization and funds by the department.

e.       The respective DEs will submit demand of CTIs in all colleges in his division for consolidation at provincial level, which will be submitted to the department by the DPI (Colleges). The entire exercise is to be completed within month of July for placing case for due sanction and provision of budget prior to opening of the college after summer vacations.

f.        The stop-gap arrangement to hire the services of CTIs to fill vacant slots of teachers as and when they occur shall be allowed throughout the academic session.

8.     UPGRADATION/CONVERSION POLICY

There shall be a complete ban on any up-gradation or conversion of seats, except for the period when the ban on transfers is lifted, according to the criteria separately notified. 

9.     RATIONALIZATION POLICY

Rationalization policy shall precede the transfer policy and implemented during the months of March and April each year, according to the criteria separately notified.