October 1, 2002	Tuesday	Rajab 23, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, Sept 30: The Punjab government is appointing thousands of schoolteachers in the province on meagre salaries and unrealistic terms and conditions.

Under the employment terms and conditions, the newly appointed qualified teachers would be forced to work for a mere Rs4,250 per month salary. They would enjoy no other benefit.

A number of new teachers said the government was exploiting the educated young people. The teachers have been given time to join their specific place of posting till Oct 6.

They say the salary does not even match the income of an illiterate labourer, who earns around Rs5,000 to Rs6,000 per month.

They say the government has decided to give only Rs200 annual increase in their salary subject to satisfactory performance. The government’s ill intention can be gauged from the fact that it said that the annual increase will be given on December 1 provided a candidate completes more than six months of service. But, the government issued appointment letters at the end of September just to disqualify all teachers to claim the first annual increase at the end of this year.

“In real terms, we will only be getting four annual increases in five-year contract service,” they say.

They say that the leave rules are also very cruel as the sick leaves as well as the 90-day maternity leave would be without pay. They say the terms and conditions state that the employer will not undertake any liability on account of medical treatment.

Though the posts are school specific and non-transferable, they say the government has forced them more by stating another term and condition that their contract appointment will stand terminated automatically if any teacher will make any kind of move for transfer to any other school or position.

They say the government has specified that their performance will be evaluated on the basis of six indicators — increase in enrolment, decrease in dropouts, quality of learning of students, evaluation of students’ learning achievement, punctuality and discipline. The five-year contract will be extended on the basis of their satisfactory overall performance.