The Public Service Commission has approved a set of exemptions from the teachers’ efficiency bar examinations, resolving a bottleneck created when the Teachers’ Service Minute was rewritten, the Daily Mirror and NewsFirst both reported on Saturday.
The problem arose because teachers could no longer complete the efficiency bar requirements under the previous module system once amendments were published in Extraordinary Gazette No. 2444/21 of 8 July 2025, the Daily Mirror reported. Teachers were left holding a requirement that had no route to completion.
The Commission informed the Education Ministry of its decision on 7 September 2026.
What was approved
Three concessions apply to teachers in national and provincial schools:
- Teachers promoted to Grade I of the Teachers’ Service between 23 October 2022 and 30 June 2025 are exempted from completing Efficiency Bar III.
- Officers already promoted are exempted from the efficiency bar examination required before the grade to which they were promoted — provided they complete the examination required before their next promotion.
- Officers promoted between 30 June 2025 and the date of the efficiency bar examination for their grade receive grade promotions without the relevant module or examination being taken into account.
The provisions apply to the first efficiency bar examination under Gazette No. 2494 of 19 June 2026, the second under Gazette No. 2498 of 17 July 2026, and the third under Gazette No. 2503 of 21 August 2026.
The Education Ministry said an educational circular will be issued in due course to inform all relevant parties.
Where the two accounts differ
The outlets agree on the first two concessions. They describe the third differently.
NewsFirst reports that officers promoted after 30 June 2025, but before the examination for their grade is held, “will not be required to sit the Modular Efficiency Bar Examination” — a waiver of the modular exam specifically.
The Daily Mirror describes the same group as receiving promotions “without considering the completion of the relevant module or efficiency bar examination” — wider, covering both.
Neither report reproduces the Commission’s decision text, so which reading is correct cannot be settled from the coverage. The promised circular should resolve it.
NewsFirst attributes the decision to the Education Ministry’s account of difficulties faced by teachers; the Daily Mirror adds the gazette numbers and the 7 September notification date, which NewsFirst does not carry.
Not reported
Neither outlet says how many teachers are affected, whether the exemptions apply to teachers who already sat and failed an efficiency bar examination, or when the circular will be issued. Neither reports a response from the teachers’ trade unions, and neither says whether salary increments withheld pending efficiency bar completion will be paid retrospectively.
