May 26, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23,1424

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RAWALPINDI, May 25: Teachers imparting education to children under the non-formal literacy system have asked the government to increase their salaries as no raise has been given to them for the last seven to eight years.

The teachers also complained of delay in payment of their monthly salaries. They said sometimes the salaries were paid to them after over six months.

A teacher told Dawn that officers and consultants hired for implementation of this system were getting high salaries while each teacher was being paid only Rs1,000 per month.

She said these officers had nothing to do except for organizing seminars and circulating files regarding various projects. Literacy Commission receives huge funds from different international donor agencies but these are spent on the pays and privileges of the high authorities, she added.

The teacher said the salary should be fixed at Rs3,000 and the authorities concerned should ensure provision of the amount on monthly basis.

The teachers also criticized the instructions given by the authorities according to which they could admit more than 30 students to each class. They said many children were not getting education due to this ban.

However, Executive District Officer (literacy) Nisar Ahmad Siddiqui, when contacted, said a proposal had been forwarded to the Punjab government seeking a raise of at least Rs1,000 in the teachers’ salaries.

About the delay in payment of the salaries, the EDO said the payment was made after receiving the amount from different NGOs, owing to which delays occurred.

Answering a question about limitation on number of students, Nisar Ahmad said as there was only one teacher, one classroom and five classes in each school, therefore, the teacher would not be able to teach properly if the number of students was more than 30.