Polio vaccination : Rawalpindi teachers refuse extra work

Say engaging them for other tasks can compromise education results.

RAWALPINDI:

Teachers in Rawalpindi have refused to do the job of giving polio drops to children citing delays in compensation despite taking extra work from them.

The health department has asked the education department to send teachers to help them with the campaign, but many teachers have conveyed their reservations to their respective heads.

Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU) Rawalpindi Chapter President Raja Shahid Mubarik told The Express Tribune that they have repeatedly conveyed their grievances to the education department and the district coordination officer (DCO), but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

“The teachers will now not perform the job because they are not being properly compensated and are forced to do extra work beyond their primary duties,” he said, adding that it was the main responsibility of the health department. “The health department has already engaged lady health workers for the job and the need to engage teachers should not arise,” he said.

He said that if a primary school has two teachers to take six classes, then how they would perform the extra duty. “The education authorities also demand good results,” he said, while asking how teachers could be expected to produce good results if they were always assigned to do other jobs.

An education department official confirmed to The Express Tribune that most teachers from different Rawalpindi colleges have refused to do the job. “The heads of institutions are making excuses before the high-ups to save themselves from embarrassment, but teachers have outright refused to do the job. The authorities are still pressuring departmental heads to prepare teachers for the work,” he said.

Rawalpindi Colleges Director Prof Humayun Iqbal, however, denied that teachers have refused to participate. He said he had been instructed by the commissioner to send teachers into the field at any cost. “Sometimes teachers don’t reach the field on time and we have to strictly instruct them to maintain punctuality,” he said.

Executive District Officer Qazi Zahoor Ahmad said that refusals had not come to their notice.

Meanwhile, a teacher said on condition of anonymity that the authorities were asking them to perform the jobs when they already had lady health workers available. “The job of a teacher is not easy.  We should not be engaged in side gigs,” he said.

A female teacher said on the condition of anonymity that there was also a threat that the education department would initiate inquiries against teachers who refuse to do the job.

On the other hand, lady health workers said that they were demotivated by poor salary packages.

A lady health worker said on the condition of anonymity that they were asked to perform other jobs instead of their primary duty — family planning. She said that they were ready to do extra work if they were better compensated.

She said that the health department was not ready to give them any incentive and were not even getting transportation allowances.  “Most of the lady health workers have decided to quit their jobs due to the indifferent attitude of the authorities,” she said, adding that they performed their duty in the field for the whole day but they were given nothing in return.  “This is the reason that we are de-motivated,” she said.

District Health Officer Dr Khalid Randhawa told The Express Tribune that polio abolition was a national cause and the health department has asked different departments including education, population welfare and agriculture departments to help them eradicate the disease.

“We have demanded them to do the job in urban areas as most of the health department staff is working in rural areas,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2014.