Cough up: ‘Teachers were forced to donate for IDPs’

Government denies allegations, says no such directives <br /> were issued.

LAHORE: Within days of a ceremony held at Alhamra Arts Council where various representatives of the education sector donated Rs110 million to the fund, several teachers’ representative groups have expressed reservations against what they are calling forced collection of funds from teachers.

Senior officials insist that the collection of funds has been transparent. They say teachers and parents were encouraged, not forced, to contribute.

On Friday, the provincial Ministry of Education Department had held an event marking the formation of the Shahbaz Sharif Volunteer Force for IDPs and a fundraiser, in which 150 colleges, 35 universities and 160 schools participated. Of the Rs110 million collected that day, Rs7 million was donated by the Lahore Education Executive District Officer.

Following the fundraiser, several teachers complained of being forced to contribute. The Punjab Teachers Union issued a statement on Saturday expressing their concerns.

PTU president Syed Sajjad Akbar Kazmi said teachers were being forced to contribute to the chief minister’s relief fund, that too without a transparent mechanism. The statement said while most teachers would gladly contribute a day’s salary for the relief fund, reports of mandatory donations were disturbing. Heads of several schools, acting on government directions, had made it obligatory for teachers to donate, the statement said.

Requesting anonymity, a PTU official said, “The problem is, while we are concerned about the IDPs, the government simply cannot make it compulsory for us to donate. Teachers are being threatened with transfers or show-cause notices if they fail to donate.

The PTU has also demanded that the EDO’s office email lists of the funds collected to each school and make sure that the teachers who contributed were given a receipt. This should be done through a government official appointed at the district level, the PTU said.

Several public school teachers The Express Tribune talked to said that they had been verbally instructed by heads of their schools to donate Rs3,000 for the fund.

A primary school teacher, who earns Rs18,000 per month, said, “I want to be able to donate and help others. But this should be my decision, not one taken for me by someone else.”

Punjab Headmasters’ Association president Rashid Ahmed Bhatti said the initial impression they had was that it was compulsory to donate to the chief minister’s fund. But government officials had clarified that later, he said. “Initially, we were told that teachers would be required to donate Rs3,000 but when we raised concerns, it was clarified that there was no such requirement…if it was, we would have never allowed it,” he said. But, he added that teachers were encouraged by government officials to donate generously, saying this was their “national duty”.

Lahore EDO Pervaiz Akhtar dismissed allegations of mandatory donations. Akhtar said the district government had held several meetings at provincial and district levels in which they framed a mechanism to collect donations. He said head teachers were told to call a meeting to educate teachers about the drive and identify students from “reasonable economic backgrounds”. He said the teachers were then asked to visit the parents and encourage them to contribute.

He said the EDO’s office had been tasked to collect funds from public schools but there were no orders of compulsory donations. He said teachers were not required to donate a specific amount or salary for a specific number of days. His office said that they had collected Rs7.1 million from public schools for the chief minister’s fund.

“If donations were mandatory, the sum we collected would’ve been much higher. I know of several schools where students and teachers donated as little as a few hundred rupees ... elsewhere we received donations that went into thousands.” When asked about specific details regarding the donations, the EDO withheld comment. The collection drive ended last Friday when the collected amount was submitted to the chief minister’s relief fund.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2014.