RAWALPINDI: As many as 104 teachers across the district have applied for early retirement between August and November, after being asked by the state to participate in anti-dengue and anti-polio campaigns as well as improve examination results.

Government schools in the district have been operating without 50 per cent of their teachers for the last three months, because many staff members have been engaged in the anti-dengue and anti-polio campaigns and now in the local government elections.

For the anti-dengue campaign, teachers have been tasked with asking homeowners whether their houses have been sprayed as well as their localities.

Teachers feel pressured by government to produce good results and also participate in anti-dengue, anti-polio drives

Teachers have also been asked to administer polio vaccines to children by visiting them door-to-door and prepare data on children who have missed vaccinations and those who have been vaccinated.

A senior official from the education department told Dawn that teachers have also been asked to improve performance in board examinations, otherwise they may risk forfeiting their two to three-year service.

“After all this, over 104 teachers have applied for early retirement. Most teachers were of the view that they wanted to do a better job, instead of teaching just to manage their household budget,” the official said.

He said the teachers’ cases had been forwarded to Lahore, and after receiving the final green light, the teachers would be paid their dues and the vacant seats would be filled.

He said the provincial government believed that the teachers were not entirely focused on their students, which was why they had chosen to take disciplinary action against those who failed to produce good results.

However, teachers say the government has burdened teachers while also engaging them in various campaigns, instead of giving them time to focus on students.

Punjab Teachers Association, Rawalpindi district president, Chaudhry Sagheer said that students have been ignored since teachers had been tasked with participating in the anti-dengue campaign.

He said, “All the IT teachers were engaged in different districts for election duties, and the remaining staff was appointed polling staff in various union councils and were being trained by the election commission for the last two weeks. Who will teach the students in their absence?”

Mr Sagheer claimed the Punjab government had received funds from international donors but had not improved the condition of public schools in the province in order to promote the private education system.

He recommended to the government to make it mandatory for government employees from grades 1 to 22, as well as politicians, to send their children to public schools, and said this would prevent the state from using teachers for anything other than educational purposes.

Executive District Officer Education Qazi Zahoorul Haq confirmed that over 104 teachers had applied for early retirement. He said the government had sought a response from teachers whose students did not perform well in the matric examinations. He said there are over 100 inquiries pending in this regard.

Mr Haq said teachers were engaged in the anti-dengue and anti-polio campaigns as per government directives. He added: “For elections, it is a routine that schoolteachers work at polling stations, because they perform better compared to other staff.”

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015