KARACHI, Jan 2: The Sindh government has decided to go tough on office- bearers of teachers’ bodies, who are allegedly not paying the needed attention to their original jobs in schools and colleges.

Sources in the education department said the department had asked the executive district officers (education) and district coordinator officers in the province to adopt a “no work, no pay” policy in the case of all such teachers who were not performing their duties at their assigned places, but were being paid salaries by the government.

In its latest communication to the district government’s high-ups, a senior official of the Sindh education department said most office-bearers of teachers’ associations were being frequently found absent from their office duties, which was against the service rules and government policy.

The department said all the government employees were required to perform their day-to-day duties at their places of posting on a regular basis and no officer or official was allowed to remain absent from job and draw salary.

Visits to educational institutions and inquiries had revealed that habitual absentees or those who failed to fulfil the pre-requisites before going on leave were mostly those who either ran associations or its sub-offices or were enjoying support of teachers’ associations, said an official.

He said the problem of drawing salary without work was more prevalent in government institutions in the rural areas. In rural area most schoolteachers, under the cover of associations, had been causing problems to their heads or principals. They were doing exactly the opposite of what they were expected to do. They were not working to bring about meaningful improvement in the academic atmosphere in the educations institutions where they were posted, he added.

He pointed out that disciplinary rules were only in the books as mostly they were not enforced. The latest directives, though general in nature, had been issued on the demand of school and college heads and would prove an effective tool against the association leaders and their associates as well, claimed the official.

The education department advised its officers/officials concerned, principals of colleges and headmasters of schools to ensure that no employee drew salary without doing the assigned work, as it was illegal. The officials/officers concerned and principals or school heads should be held responsible for undue payment of salary to defaulting teachers, added the department’s communication, intimating that heads of institutions were required to proceed on leave under the E&D rules. Cases against violators of the rules should be reported, without fail, to the department for action under the rules.

WELFARE TRUST: The government has begun working in regard to the setting up of a teachers’ welfare trust in the province. The trust, aimed at providing financial relief to teachers and their family in times of hardship during service or after retirement, had already been approved by the competent authority, sources said.