1,027 govt school principals still waiting to be paid

Five months after their appointment, the contractual employees have yet to be receive their salaries

KARACHI: Around 1,027 heads of government schools in Sindh have been running fruitlessly from pillar to post to get their salaries for the past five months.

Among the head teachers are many who quit their jobs in hopes of becoming principals at government schools. The principals qualified for their jobs through the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Sukkur and received their appointment letters after an orientation session in Karachi on June 1 this year. Now, the future of these young teachers hangs in the balance as the provincial government has adopted delaying tactics in the release of their monthly salaries.

"We have approached the authorities concerned but they are indifferent," said a principal. "I gave up a junior school teaching job to take this opportunity to be a headmaster. After a five-month struggle, I am really dejected.  It looks like my teaching career has been stalled," he lamented.

Some headmasters plan to stage a demonstration in front of Chief Minister House and observe hunger strikes in district headquarters, but they are waiting for a final consensus to be evolved amongst them.



Pakistan Muslim League – Functional lawmaker Nusrat Seher Abbasi has moved an adjournment on this issue in the Sindh Assembly. "Everyone was earlier crying to appoint teachers on merit. This has finally been done but sadly the government is unwilling to release salaries to them," she lamented, adding that many headmistresses in Khairpur, Larkana and Hyderabad districts were not given charge of schools. "They did not carry my adjournment motion, but I will again raise this issue in the next session," Abbasi vowed.

Alif Ailan, a non-profit organisation working in the field of education in Pakistan, lauded the decision to appoint qualified youth as head teachers through competitive exams but expressed concern over not their salaries being withheld.

"It is unfortunate. The head teachers' due rights are being trampled on," lamented Shahab Siddiqi, Alif Ailaan’s media head. "When the discussion should be on the improvement of the quality of education in schools, we are still locked in bureaucratic struggles to pay salaries on time," he said.

The Primary Teachers' Association (PTA) in Sindh has always advocated for the rights of their colleagues by protesting at various forums but in this case they have knocked on the doors of the judiciary against the appointment of head teachers. PTA Secretary-General Sikandar Jatoi termed them illegal appointments.



"The provincial government has no authority to directly appoint head teachers in Grade-17," he said, adding that it is the Sindh Public Service Commission’s (SPSC) prerogative to conduct the test from Grade-16 onwards.

According to Jatoi, there was some ambiguity in the appointment of the head teachers. "In the advertisement the education department announced that they would be hired for a one-year period but now their tenure has increased to three years,” he pointed out, requesting the government to annul the order to appoint the teachers.

Education Secretary Iqbal Durrani, however, claimed on October 21 that the issue of the salaries of the newly-appointed head teachers would be resolved within 15 days but failed to fulfil his promise.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Education Minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar said the salaries of the principals are currently being processed. "We have appointed these teachers following international standards to improve the quality of education," he explained, adding that these head teachers have been appointed on a contractual basis and every year their contract will be renewed given their performance.

"After three consecutive years, we will convert them into permanent employees of the education department," he said, adding that there was no restriction on the appointment on Grade-17 teachers on a contract basis. "Actually, we have started a school consolidation programme, merging two to three schools into one. Each head teacher will be incharge of a consolidated school in their respective area with full authority to utilise school management committee and other development funds," Dahar said.  "No one is a political appointee. We have not given them jobs; they have passed competitive exams conducted by IBA, which is one of the most reputable institutions,” he clarified.

According to the education minister, some people were making an issue out of nothing but they would foil their nefarious designs by releasing the salaries soon.