The government must ensure that the minimum wage is paid to private schoolteachers.
KARACHI: This is with reference to Ayesha Siddiqa’s article of February 6 “Producing uneducated literates”. I endorse her view and would also add some of my observations. First of all, a conference of highly qualified serving and retired professors and eminent scholars should be immediately convened by the federal government and the provincial education departments, to seek their suggestions, for the improvement of the education system in Pakistan. All ghost schools in Sindh and Balochistan must immediately start functioning properly and diligently, and ghost teachers must be ordered to attend school without any further loss of time. If they do not do so, strict action should be taken against them and they should be dismissed from service.
Both the government and the education departments must jointly work for the improvement of the education system, which is worsening by the day.
When new teachers are appointed, they should always be given six months of extensive suitable training in a prominent institute in Pakistan, as well as management training periodically. This is essential for their future and that of their students.
I know many private schools in Karachi, which pay their teachers paltry salaries amounting between Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 a month. The minimum wage in Pakistan is Rs10,000. The government must ensure that the minimum wage is paid to private schoolteachers. The private school directorate of all the provinces must ensure that the appointed teachers have minimum educational qualifications.
I hope the federal government, the provincial governments, as well as the education departments of all provinces, work properly to save the future of our students.
Taimoor Sulaiman Kazi
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2014.
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