Pakistan: Teachers agitate over non-payment of salaries for eight months

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has failed to pay the salaries to teachers of non-formal girls’ schools in the region for eight months, affecting the future of enrolled students.

As reported by The Dawn, “The teachers, who have not received salaries, are posted to 2,200 girls’ community schools, 541 basic education centre schools (BECS) and 275 National Commission of Human Development (NCHD) schools.”

The minimum wage for unskilled labour is Rs. 36,000 as fixed by the government but the government is paying Rs. 21,000 to the school teachers.

The schools are working under the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (E&SEF).

A senior official in E&SEF told The Dawn that the government was reluctant to release funds for the foundation when it required Rs 2 billion to pay the salaries of school teachers.

He further highlighted that due to the transfer of Zareeful Maani, the former managing director of E&SEF, the foundation worked inefficiently and made little effort to get funds from the government.

The official stated, “Maani had made tireless efforts to put life in the otherwise dead foundation because managing directors in the past had taken no interest in it as they had just taken handsome salaries”.

One of the teachers lamented that they had not received salaries since March. She further expressed grief that she had to reach school by public transport and was unable to go by a van or rickshaw due to her low salary. She said,” Now we are taking loans from our relatives to fulfil our basic needs as we have no other source of income.”

The teachers told Dawn that they paid rent for the school building as the foundation did not provide any funds for the building. But due to non-payment of salaries, they are unable to pay the rent.

Many GCS schools have been closed due to non-payment of salaries to the teachers. There is a possibility of closing more schools if the government does not provide them with salaries immediately.