Over 1,100 teachers unpaid for 6 months

Teachers threaten to strike if not paid this month.

GILGIT: After being deprived of salaries for the past seven months, over 1,100 teachers of Social Action Programme (SAP) schools have decided to launch protest demonstrations across Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) from 17th January if they are not paid.

“We are ready to launch protest demonstrations to obtain our rights,” said Riaz Khan, an SAP schoolteacher. Speaking in Gilgit on Friday, he said that they will carry out demonstration in Ghizer, Astore, Skardu and many other parts of the region to make the government act upon their plight.

“Life in winters is simply hell if you are totally cash strapped. We are close to starvation,” he said.

The teachers were last paid their salaries in June 2010, the same month SAP schoolteachers were placed under the administrative control of National Education Foundation (NEF). The handover seems to have failed to resolve anything, which the teachers can
vouch for.

NEF G-B Director Yasmin Ali said teachers haven’t been paid due to financial constraints, adding that an agreement was reached with SAP teachers that they will be paid quarterly.

Ali said that the floods had ruined the economy of the region, and reminded the teachers of their agreement with NEF for quarterly payments.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2011.