LAHORE: The government has failed to ensure proper salary packages for private schools as thousands of teachers still get low salaries and are treated like labourers, Daily Times learnt on Monday.
The Punjab government, in its budget for 2016-17, announced Rs 13,000 to Rs 14,000 as minimum wage for unskilled workers, but failed to implement this, as even qualified teachers in private schools are getting Rs 4,000 to Rs 13,000. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, in May, announced that the Punjab government raised the minimum wage of labours and unskilled workers to Rs 14,000 per month, effective from July 2016.
According to a survey conducted by this scribe, private schools, especially those located in middle class and slum areas that usually operate in residential buildings rather than a specified campus, pay low salaries to their qualified teachers. They lamented that their salarieswere even lower than that of labourers.However, salaries in major schools were usually better or equal to the government schoolteachers, but they charge massive fees from students therefore a common man cannot afford to send his children in such schools.
Talking about the matter, senior schoolteacher and educationist IffatAhmarsaid that there is no monitoring in government’s system and there exists lack of standardisation. Iffat explained that the recently flourishing business of franchised schooling does not have any mechanism to monitor the salaries of schoolteachers, as they ask for qualification and teaching techniques. She said that a franchise wants to save as much money as they can and are willing to pay salaries of Rs 5,000 to 10,000 and write Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 in the documents.
Replying to a query about the teachers getting low wages she said that even the maids charge Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000 per month, but the teachers, who are builders of future and make the next generation, are deprived of their rights. This was the major reason behind the decreasing quality of education in our country.When contacted for local government’s actions against the low salariesissue, Lahore Executive District Officer (Education) Tariq Rafiq was unavailable for comment.
