Junior female teachers still wait for time-scale promotions

FDE officials say Establishment Division yet to approve promotion rules

ISLAMABAD: While the teaching community enjoyed one time-scale promotions on multiple occasions, some female teachers in the primary sections of model colleges have been denied this right for the past six years owing to bureaucratic and administrative hurdles .

Over 300 teachers employed in the basic pay scale-17 have been working in the junior sections of model colleges of the capital without any time-scale promotions to grade-18 since January 2011.

Some other teachers working in the junior sections of 20 model colleges in the capital in pay grades such as 18, 19 and 20, also have also been stuck in the same pay grade during this period, but they are few in number.



Moreover, the teachers have also been deprived of regular promotions for years after their nomenclature was mistakenly changed when the entire teaching community in the capital were upgraded in 2011 on the directives of then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. The teachers subsequently approached the finance ministry, negotiating with them to change their nomenclature. They event went to the courts.

Finally, three years ago, a solution was had the government agreed to change their nomenclature.

But officials at the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) allegedly did not complete the office records necessary for the time-scale promotions of the teachers.

“Primary section teachers are among the most hard-working teachers who make a base for the students,” said a teacher at the Islamabad Model College for Girls Sector I-8/4 while requesting not to be named.

“They [teachers] take around six to seven classes every day and spend hours in checking copies of around 60 students who study in each class, write their diaries and teach them how to read and write,” she added.

The teacher went on to complain that despite the amount of work they do, primary school teachers were among the most deprived in the teaching community since most of them are women and do not have the time to keep visiting the directorate every day and urge officials to expedite the process.

The teachers further said that they had submitted applications, and visited the Directorate on multiple occasions but received no clear response from the FDE.

“Sometimes they [FDE officials] say their performance evaluation reports were incomplete,” the teacher said as she asked, “how come the FDE could not prepare cases over the past six years while teachers in federal institutions have been promoted during this time and their cases were all prepared.”

Farzana Akram, the vice president of the Central Academic Staff Association (CASA) of model colleges. Lamented the apathetic and carefree attitude of FDE officials who manage affairs of model colleges, creating unrest among teachers.

She urged the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) to take notice of what she termed was discrimination with junior section teachers at model colleges.



“I have been working here since 2002, but neither did I get a regular promotion, nor any time-scale promotion, moreover most teachers who joined in 1996 and 2000 have been deprived of any job benefits,” Akram said. However, FDE officials explained that the delays were due to the absence of any rules for promotion for this cadre of teachers prescribing timelines for promotions.

Tariq Masood, the director for model colleges at FDE, claims that some new cadres were added while rules for the posts have now been amended. “The rules are being sent to the establishment division and after approval of the rules, the promotion process would be initiated,” Masood maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2017.