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Special Education Department Punjab Jobs 2026 in Lahore — 11 Autism Centre Posts

Special Education Department, Government of the Punjab — Lahore, Pakistan (Maryam Nawaz School & Resource Centre for Autism, 1-D1 Township)

By Muhammad Younus, Editor Posted: 23 Oct 2026 Updated: 03 Nov 2026 14 min read

Special Education Department Punjab Jobs 2026 in Lahore offer 11 posts at the Maryam Nawaz School & Resource Centre for Autism, and the last date to apply online is 6 November 2026. This is a specialist hiring round, not a general one: every post except the two receptionist roles serves autistic and neurodiverse children directly, through occupational therapy, counselling, life-skills coaching, music therapy, sensory integration therapy, or augmentative and alternative communication. Pay is a fixed monthly lump sum, and it is unusually generous for a provincial contract round — Rs 220,000 a month for Occupational Therapists, Rs 100,000 for the five other professional titles, and Rs 70,000 for Receptionists — which reflects how scarce licensed paediatric therapists are in Pakistan. Appointments run for three years, extendable on satisfactory performance, and applications go online only through the Punjab Job Portal, so eligible therapists should apply this week: the deadline is only days away.

About Special Education Department, Government of the Punjab

The Special Education Department of the Government of the Punjab is the provincial department responsible for the education, training and rehabilitation of children with special educational needs. Its institutions span schools for children with visual, hearing, physical and intellectual disabilities, as well as specialist centres for autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions. The Maryam Nawaz School & Resource Centre for Autism in Township, Lahore, is one of its flagship institutions: a dedicated school and resource centre where autistic children receive schooling alongside the therapies that make schooling possible — occupational therapy for motor and sensory skills, speech and communication support, counselling for emotional and behavioural needs, and life-skills coaching that builds independence step by step. A centre of this kind lives or dies on its therapists, because autism support is delivered one child at a time, in sessions that must be planned, documented and adjusted to each child's profile. That is why this advertisement hires clinicians rather than classroom teachers, why it insists on five years of direct experience with autistic or special-needs children for most posts, and why it pays professional rates rather than teacher-scale salaries. For a licensed therapist, this is a rare provincial opening that pays at private-clinic levels while keeping the work inside a public institution.

Vacant Positions — Post-Wise Details

Eleven posts are open across seven titles, all on three-year contracts at the Township campus in Lahore. Pay is a fixed monthly lump sum, and age limits are printed against each post, with government-policy relaxation already included and no further relaxation granted.

• Occupational Therapist: The highest-paid post in the round at Rs 220,000 per month. Works directly with autistic children on motor, sensory and daily-living skills.
• School Counsellor: Provides counselling support to children with special educational needs at Rs 100,000 per month, working alongside therapists and teachers.
• Life Skills Coach: Builds independence in daily living, self-care and community skills for autistic children, at Rs 100,000 per month.
• Music Therapist: Uses structured music sessions as a therapeutic tool for communication, regulation and engagement, at Rs 100,000 per month.
• Sensory Integration Therapist: Delivers sensory integration therapy for children with sensory processing differences, at Rs 100,000 per month.
• AAC Specialist: Works on augmentative and alternative communication — the tools and strategies that give non-speaking children a voice — at Rs 100,000 per month.
• Receptionist: The only non-clinical post in the round: front-desk, parent liaison and records support at Rs 70,000 per month.

Eligibility Criteria — Who Can Apply

• Relevant degree from an HEC-recognised university for the post applied for, as printed against each title in the advertisement.
• Professional licence or registration where the post requires it: Occupational Therapy and Sensory Integration posts require Licensed/Registered status, and the AAC post requires registration in Speech and Language Therapy/Pathology.
• Five years of direct experience for the therapy and counselling posts: Paediatric OT and autism practice for Occupational Therapists, SEN counselling for the School Counsellor, life-skills coaching or rehabilitation for Life Skills Coaches, sensory integration therapy for Sensory Integration Therapists, and work with autistic children for the AAC Specialist.
• Three years of instrumental and vocal music experience from a recognised organisation for the Music Therapist post.
• Two years of relevant experience in a reputed organisation or firm for the Receptionist posts.
• Age within the band printed for the post: 25 to 40 years for Occupational Therapist, School Counsellor and Music Therapist; 25 to 35 years for Life Skills Coach, Sensory Integration Therapist and AAC Specialist; 21 to 30 years for Receptionist.
• Age relaxation as per government policy is already included in the printed age limits; no further relaxation is granted in this round.
• Government, semi-government and autonomous-body employees must apply through the proper channel with a No Objection Certificate.
• Only shortlisted candidates who fulfil the criteria are called for interview, and they must produce original documents with an attested set and a photograph at that stage.
• Applications must be submitted online through the Punjab Job Portal before 6 November 2026; no TA/DA is paid for the interview.

Special Education Department Punjab Jobs 2026 set an experience bar that will screen out most general applicants, and that is deliberate. For five of the seven titles, the advertisement demands five years of direct, relevant experience — not five years of any work, but five years with the exact population the centre serves. Occupational Therapists need five years of paediatric occupational therapy and practice with autism; the School Counsellor needs five years counselling children with special educational needs; Life Skills Coaches need five years of life-skills coaching or rehabilitation; Sensory Integration Therapists need five years providing sensory integration therapy to neurodiverse children; and the AAC Specialist needs five years with autistic children. The licence requirement is equally specific: occupational therapy and sensory therapy posts require Licensed or Registered status, and the speech and language post requires registration, because these are regulated clinical roles and the centre cannot lawfully staff them with unregistered practitioners. The two exceptions prove the rule. The Music Therapist needs a graduation plus three years of instrumental and vocal music experience from a recognised organisation — a shorter bar, because music therapy in Pakistan has no single licensing register. The Receptionist needs a bachelor's degree in Public Relations, Social Science or Sociology and two years of relevant experience, and is the only post open to candidates aged 21 to 30. Age bands are otherwise 25 to 40 or 25 to 35 depending on the post, and the advertisement states plainly that government-policy relaxation is already included in those bands, with no further relaxation granted — so a candidate outside the band for their post should not apply in the hope of an exception.

Salary & Benefits

Pay in this round is a fixed monthly lump sum rather than a Basic Pay Scale salary, and the figures are printed in the advertisement itself, which makes them reliable. Occupational Therapists receive Rs 220,000 per month, the highest figure in the round and a rate that reflects both the scarcity of licensed paediatric occupational therapists and the five-year autism-experience requirement. The School Counsellor, Life Skills Coach, Music Therapist, Sensory Integration Therapist and AAC Specialist each receive Rs 100,000 per month — seven posts at that rate. Receptionists receive Rs 70,000 per month. Because the appointment is a lump sum contract, candidates should not expect the allowances, increments and pension structure of a regular BPS appointment; the lump sum is the whole monthly package for the three-year contract term. That trade-off is the point of the round: the department is paying market rates to attract clinicians who could otherwise work privately, in exchange for a fixed-term public appointment. The total monthly wage bill for the eleven posts, on the advertised figures, is Rs 1,280,000 — a useful sense of the scale of investment in a single autism centre.

Selection Process

Selection follows the standard provincial pattern for specialist contract posts, with the advertisement's own conditions shaping each stage. Applications submitted online through the Punjab Job Portal are screened against the post-wise qualification, licence, experience and age criteria, and only shortlisted candidates who fulfil the criteria are called for interview. The interview is the decisive stage: for clinical posts it can be expected to probe case experience with autistic children, familiarity with the relevant therapy frameworks, and the ability to work in a school-based multidisciplinary team, while the Receptionist interview will test communication, organisation and parent-facing skills. Shortlisted candidates must produce their original documents together with a set of attested copies and a photograph at the interview, and failure to produce them can end the candidature. Government servants are screened through the proper channel with a No Objection Certificate. No travelling or daily allowance is paid for the interview, and the department's decision after interview is final. Because the closing date is 6 November 2026 and the round is small — eleven posts — shortlisting is likely to be quick, and candidates should keep their licence, registration and experience certificates ready rather than assembling them after the call.

Documents Required

• Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC), valid and matching the application record.
• Degree or degrees for the post applied for, from an HEC-recognised university.
• Professional licence or registration certificate for Occupational Therapy, Sensory Therapy or Speech and Language Therapy posts, as applicable.
• Experience certificates proving the required years of direct relevant experience, with the employer's name and dates.
• Domicile certificate, where the Punjab Job Portal application requires it.
• Recent passport-size photograph, as required at the interview stage.
• A set of attested copies of all relevant documents, to be produced with the originals at interview.
• No Objection Certificate (NOC) for government, semi-government and autonomous-body employees.
• Music experience certificates from a recognised organisation, for the Music Therapist post.
• Updated CV setting out clinical experience with autistic and neurodiverse children, post by post.
• Printed or saved copy of the submitted online application, for reference at the interview.
• Any additional registration, training or workshop certificates relied on in the application.

Terms & Conditions

Appointments are on contract for three years on a lump sum monthly salary, extendable on satisfactory performance, and they are not regular BPS appointments. Candidates already working in government, semi-government or autonomous bodies may apply through the proper channel along with a No Objection Certificate. Only shortlisted candidates who fulfil the criteria are called for interview, and they must produce original documents with a set of attested copies and a photograph at that stage. Age relaxation as per government policy is already included in the age limit against each post, and no further relaxation is granted. No TA/DA is paid to candidates for the interview. The department may adjust the process in line with its rules, and its decision after interview is final. Because this article summarises the advertisement IPL-11173 as reported, candidates should read the full advertisement on the Punjab Job Portal before applying, and treat the portal listing as the authoritative text where any summary differs.

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