18 January 2004	Sunday	25 Ziqa'ad 1424

ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The teachers of federal government colleges have complained against what they call 'dismally low service structure' and have called for upgrading of their grades.

Talking to Dawn, a number of teachers expressed their dissatisfaction with the service structure they were being offered in federal colleges.

A female teacher, who had also done PhD from abroad and was serving in a women college in Islamabad, said: "After 30 years of services I am in grade 19 and likely to retire in the same grade."

She said PhDs in public-sector universities were getting Rs5,000 as research allowance, whereas "we were being paid only Rs1,500 against the same provision".

Despite, repeated reminders and applications to the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) in this regard over the years, "we have received no response".

She said all over the world, teachers were the highest paid and most respected community, but here in Pakistan "we have diametrically opposed conditions".

"Just imagine, all women colleges situated in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) have only three slots in grade 20 and there are about 13 PhD teachers in these colleges," she said.

If students at school and college level are not provided standard education through quality teachers, it is unjustifiable to expect an overall improvement in the education sector, one of her colleagues remarked.

How pity that teaching profession is being treated as one of the discorded professions compared to other public-sector organizations in terms of salary structures and attached emoluments, another male teacher argued.

This is the sole reason why the younger generation joins this profession as a last option and over the years a mediocre stuff is filling this sector, he added.

The federal government schools and colleges have peculiar service structures, in certain cases a teacher only with BA, BEd qualification has been promoted to grade 20, but teachers with exceptional credentials are serving in grade 18 or 19.

When contacted, the FDE director-general, Brig Maqsoodul Hassan (retired), accepted that there was a need to revamp teachers service structure.

"In this regard, I have personally contacted Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman so that on the lines of the commission, teachers at schools and colleges could be offered attractive salary structures," the DG said.

In response to a question, he agreed that teachers were not getting what they deserved on account of their services which was the reason the education sector was lacking quality teachers.

The directorate will set up teachers resource centres for their training in key subjects both at college and school level, he said.

Talking to Dawn, he said: "The FDE has already established a couple of such centres and has planned to increase this number so that teachers can be trained with the latest teaching techniques in important subjects."

He said everyday new developments were being made both in teaching techniques and subjects, therefore training of teachers through master trainers was a must.

Teaching always needs improvement and to keep pace with the ever-changing education standards and increasing competition in the education sector worldwide, teachers need to be offered refresher courses to keep them abreast of the latest teaching techniques.