Newly appointed teachers await salaries

Dozens of female instructors suffer from mental agony owing to non-disbursement of salaries for seven months

HARIPUR:

The newly appointed female primary teachers of the Ghazi region are awaiting to receive their salaries even after seven months of their postings.

Sources said since the transfer of SDEO Education Ghazi last month, no one has been assigned the powers of Drawing and Disbursement Officer (DDO), adding to the woes of the newly appointed female teaching staff.

According to sources, the secretary of education has been requested to provide relief to the affected teachers from the distressing situation while the Education Office (male) has assured provision of salaries soon.

The sources said that on September 3, 2022, female primary teachers were appointed in Ghazi and the DEO Office (female) Haripur had made it mandatory that the salaries of the newly appointed teachers will not be released until the verification of their educational documents. However, the verifications issued by some of the boards were sent to the Haripur office but they allegedly went missing from the office due to negligence and then they had to undergo the process again.

The sources have also said that a message was sent by the affected female teachers to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s director of education to resolve their problems, after which a clear instruction was issued to all the DEOs that the salaries of the affected teachers should be released soon and a report should be sent to the Directorate of Education, Peshawar, but the salaries were still not released.

According to the officials of the accounts office, the checks issued by the office on March 1, 2023, were sent to the SDOs. Providing the salaries of any department on time is the responsibility of the departmental accounts office.

The officials in charge of the education office (female) have said that the SDEO (female) of Ghazi was transferred on February 18. “Her post was still vacant and the temporary charge of handling the issues of salaries etc.

Has not been handed over to anyone yet due to which seven months’ salary cheques of the nine newly appointed primary teachers of Ghazi are still pending,” they explained. “As soon as an officer is appointed, the checks will be released with her signature,” they said.

Dozens of female teachers have been suffering from severe mental anguish due to the non-issuance of their salaries for the past seven months.

On being contacted about this situation, Mumtaz Khan, Budget and Accounts Officer of the Department of Education, said that male and female SDOs in Ghazi were appointed two days ago. “As per the rules and regulations, only an authorised officer is allowed to sign the released salary cheques. Due to non-placement, there has been a delay in releasing salaries, taking notice of which the required placement has been made in Ghazi. Now all teachers’ salaries will be released soon,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, political leader Imran Alizai said that due to undue political interference, male and female offices of the education department had become political arenas.

“Incompetent persons with political backing have been illegally appointed to higher positions which will plague this department like the TMA has been with political vendettas,” he said.

He alleged that it was unfortunate for the district that the appointment and transfer of school principals of grades 17 and 18 were being done by the class four secretary of a local politician who was himself a watchman or a driver.

“Due to this lawlessness, dozens of teachers cannot come forward for fear of reprisals. There are numerous instances where scores of male and female teachers have been targeted in the name of bogus inquiries,” he claimed.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2023.