Interim govt clarifies decision to cancel recruitment of music, physical education teachers

The interim government has clarified its decision to exclude recruitment opportunities for music and physical education teachers in government primary schools. In a statement, it said that such limited recruitment would not bring any effective results and might instead create inequality within the education system. The government added that if sufficient funds are available in the future, the recruitment of teachers in these two subjects across all schools may be reconsidered.

The clarification came through a statement from the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing on Tuesday night, November 4.

Earlier on Sunday, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education published a gazette notification amending the ‘Government Primary School Teacher Recruitment Rules,’ eliminating the provision for recruiting teachers in music and physical education.

The previous version of the rules, issued on August 28, 2025, included four categories of positions—head teacher, assistant teacher, assistant teacher (music), and assistant teacher (physical education). The new amendment retained only the posts of head teacher and assistant teacher.

Following the publication of the earlier version, several religion-based political groups opposed the recruitment of music teachers and demanded the appointment of religious teachers instead. They also threatened to protest if the post for music teachers remained in place.

According to the interim government’s statement, the initial plan was to appoint music and physical education teachers across 2,500 clusters among the country’s 65,569 government primary schools, meaning one teacher per cluster. However, the secretary committee concluded that such a small-scale recruitment would not be effective and could create inequality.

The committee observed that under the cluster-based approach, a single teacher would have to serve in more than twenty schools, which is impractical. Therefore, the plan was revised.

The government further stated that if sufficient funds are allocated in the future, separate teachers for music and physical education may be appointed in all government primary schools.