FDE forms new rules for teacher’s honorarium

Employees showing high performance, regularity, commitment, and a good reputation entitled to honorarium

ISLAMABAD:

The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has introduced new policy guidelines for giving an honorarium to teachers, The Express Tribune learnt on Wednesday.

A notification issued by the FDE said that the employees showing high performance, regularity, commitment, and having a good reputation would be entitled to the honorarium.

The FDE will not give an honorarium to workers against whom disciplinary proceeds are in progress or against whom responsibility has been fixed through a fact-finding inquiry committee. Workers with irregular biometric attendance record and a casual attitude towards service would not receive an honorarium.

The notification said employees on leave for more than three months will not be granted honorarium while those deployed on deputation or less than six months earlier have also been kept at bay.

Eligible employees from basic pay scale (BPS) 1 to 9 would be recommended for honorarium amounting to 100 percent basic pay but not exceeding Rs20,000. Similarly, non-teaching staff from BPS 11 to 17, will be granted allowance in the proportion of 25 percent.

The employees will either get 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent or 100 percent which would be subject to the honorarium based on the aforementioned criteria. The maximum threshold of the honorarium for BPS 11 to 17 employees has been set at Rs25,000.

Subject to availability of funds, the area education officer (AEO) can recommend the head of institution and vice-principal with high achievement for an amount not exceeding Rs30,000. In the letter, the heads of institutions have been strictly directed to certify all parameters for honorarium while the recommendation sent by different educational institutions would be considered final.

Meanwhile, teachers have taken strong exception against the new honorarium policy and said that such decisions would generate anxiety among educators. They said the basic component of an educational institution was its teachers and ignoring them was unjust. The educators have called for FDE DG to include teachers in the list as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2021.