KARACHI: Both male and female junior schoolteachers (JST) and primary schoolteachers (PST), who have also passed their exams from the National Testing Service (NTS), gathered outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday afternoon to register their protest about not getting their salaries even after nine months of employment.

They said that despite joining schools as teachers for nine months they were still waiting for their salaries.

“We have heard that even the orders to give us our salaries have not been conveyed. Meanwhile, teachers in other cities of Sindh are getting paid regularly. We have been doing the rounds of the Reform Support Unit (RSU) and the directorate of education in Civic Centre, who were a part of our hiring process, but no one is yet to provide us with a satisfying answer,” said one protesting teacher, Abdul Jabbar, who teaches at the Mirza Adam Khan School in Lyari.

“We have been given a complain number, 8398, by the secretary education but no one responds to our complaints from there,” said another teacher, Fahim.

Ms Bushra, a primary teacher, said that their salaries were being stalled due to the Sanctioned Number of Em­­ployees issue. “Our emp­lo­yment process took us aroun­d three years but the RSU is still not moving beyond this SNE matter,” she said.

“Many of us here have even had to sell our jewellery to make both ends meet during this time. Some have been taking loans and are also being harassed by loan sharks now. Things have gotten so bad that no one is even willing to lend us money now. What do we feed our children?”

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2015

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