Teachers resent cut in hiring allowances

College teachers working under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) have expressed their resentment over the significant cut and less allocation of funds under the head of hiring allowance.

They said that they have not been paid rent ceiling/hiring allowance for the last almost one year, forcing them to pay rents from their own pockets, making huge holes in their pockets in the prevalent inflation.

They said that the delay in the payment of hiring allowance has been one of the most pressing issues facing the teachers. They said that the allocation has decreased by almost 50 per cent as compared to the previous year and a huge backlog of pending cases was yet to be cleared.

Sources said that the hiring sum for the Islamabad Model College of Commerce H-8/4 has been decreased by almost 75.4 per cent as compared to the previous year. This year, the sources said that the college has been granted Rs2, 09,000 in the hiring allowance in total as compared to Rs10,993,000 last year.

Similarly, the Islamabad Model Postgraduate College H-8/2 has been allocated Rs12,181,000 under the head of rent ceiling out of the allocated amount of Rs20,518,000. The amount is insufficient to clear the previous year’s rent ceiling for the teaching staff.

Similarly, Islamabad Model College for Girls (Postgraduate) F-7/4 has also faced a cut of 53 per cent in the current year. It was allocated an amount of Rs19,167,000 in the year 2021-22 while this time, the college has been allocated Rs90,390,00 in total.

The Islamabad Model College for Boys H-9 was allocated Rs22,531,000 previously and this year, the amount has been slashed to Rs 16,719,000, hence the college facing a cut of 26 per cent.

The IMCG (PG) F-7/2 is also facing a 32 per cent reduction in allocation while the IMCB Sihala has been granted a meagre sum of Rs3,473,000. IMCG (PG) G-10/4 and Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2 have also received 20 per cent less amount as compared to last year, the source said.

The IMCB I-10/1 and IMCB F-10/3 have respective faced 29.7 per cent and 28.7 per cent reductions in the allocated fund.

Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA) Senior Vice-President Prof Farhan Azam said that despite the constant pending of the hiring allowance, the allocation has been decreased by the Estate Office. He said that a huge amount of pending rent had been accumulated which has not been paid to the landlords by the teachers.

“The rent is paid to the owner on time and if it is not paid well in time, tenants face eviction. He said that in many cases, teachers have borrowed from banks to pay the rents which is a liability of the government. Many teachers pay rent from their own pocket, leaving with too little money to spend on everything else,” he said.

FGCTA Joint Secretary Anam Kaleem said that teachers were already facing skyrocketing rents but the delay in the release of hiring allowance has further aggravated their miseries.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2022.