ISLAMABAD: The teaching staff working on daily wage in the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) are struggling hard to make their both ends meet at the time when the principals are enjoying two salaries on the pretext of evening shift.
According to an official source, the principals of Islamabad Model Colleges are drawing double salaries; one for morning shift and another 75 pc of their pay for evening shift; their daily wage staff working on minimum wage are struggling to make ends meet.
The principals make 8-10 times the salary of a daily wage teacher at their respective colleges. On the other hand Director Model Colleges sitting at Federal Directorate (FDE) is also eligible to draw 75 pc of his pay on the pretext of administering the institutions but Area Education Officer dealing with these colleges is not eligible. Interestingly Headmistresses of these colleges are also not eligible for this extra pay which the principals are drawing. The staff of these colleges held FDE responsible for such types of anomalies.
A daily wage teacher at Islamabad Model College for girls F-10/2 believes that payment of Principals for both the shifts has gotten out of hand and is 10 times high than a daily wager. Are they really contributing 10 times as much value? The answer is no.
Principals observe similar working hours for both the shifts which an average government servant observes in any other government department.
In many cases, the government servants at ministries left their offices after 8 pm. We, the daily wagers, are the backbone of the institution but we are paid Rs. 17000 per month.
A Headmistress at a local college on the condition of anonymity said, “Headmistresses in the same institutions are doing the same job as Principals but we have not been given remuneration for the evening shift. Consequently many headmistresses are not interested working in second shift.
Principal’s financial benefits are a major contributor to rising inequality in income. They are getting more because of their influence at FDE to set remuneration for evening shift. What do the principals and director actually do all day which we are not doing? “Headmistresses and teachers are outraged because they just see it as primarily unfair, but there is also a very strong argument that this discriminatory policy of FDE is demoralizing rest of the staff”, she said while urging to fix all types of discrimination within the department” .
A daily wage teacher said, “Having a job is no guarantee of having enough income to make ends meet. Teaching is a low paid job and is simply not enough to boost incomes above the poverty line.
Hard working teachers get poor wages, whereas the officers who hardly work get high wages. We, the daily wage teachers with the qualification of M.Phil, PhD live near poverty where unforeseen expenses like a medical emergency mean that our families won’t have enough to pay for basic necessities, like food, rent, utilities, or child care.
On the other hand our principals at the highest level in the institutions are richly rewarded for their too little responsibility. It is true that teaching on a daily wage is a notoriously underpaid job, the teacher said.
