Teachers’ dues: Unpaid salaries may cause delay in RBISE result announcement

Teachers say work on marking answer scripts also going at snail’s pace.

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (RBISE) may delay the issuance of Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) results. Sources said the board has failed to clear the dues of teachers assigned to mark answer scripts last year, prompting paper checkers to work at snail’s pace this year as a form of work stoppage protest.

The board’s apathy has demotivated teachers, who said that they were not ready to work with the same passion as last year.

Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU) President Raja Shahid Mubarak told The Express Tribune that 25 to 30 teachers from Rawalpindi have not yet been compensated by the board for last year’s work.

He said the board has to pay around Rs50,000 to Rs60,000 to each of the teachers, adding that the teachers have resigned themselves to the belief that they will be forced to work unpaid this year as well.

“This is why work on paper marking is going on slowly and the result may be delayed,” Mubarak said.

He said the board was legally bound to compensate teachers on time.

Muhammad Imtiaz Abbasi, a teacher, said that he was among six teachers from his school who were hired for three months last year to carry out the assignment. He said all six are still awaiting payment.

“We deposited bills against the amount but the board is delaying clearing them, which is unjust and unfair,” he said, adding that they refused to do the job this year as a sign of protest, which prompted the board to engage teachers from Chakwal and other areas. He said that some of the teachers also went on strike, but the board authorities paid no heed to their demands.

Another teacher said the job of paper marking was a sensitive issue and the authorities should realise it. He said the unmotivated teachers are showing laxity in carrying out the assignment and this will probably delay the result.

“Why would a teacher give maximum effort without any incentive,” he asked, adding that ultimately students had to suffer.

RBISE spokesperson Arsalan Ali Cheema dispelled the impression that they result would be delayed. He told The Express Tribune that the result would be announced on time as checking of answer scripts was going smoothly. He said paper checkers were paid immediately after the announcement of the result.

Cheema said that only teachers who were ‘disqualified’ due to corruption or involvement in misconduct during the exams had not been compensated.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th,2014.