PESHAWAR: Becoming principals of government colleges is not an attractive option for most senior teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as their responsibilities increase manifold but salary decreases if they do so.

For that reason, many professors and associate professors are showing reluctance to assume the top administrative position in colleges.

“A professor’s salary is reduced by Rs10,000 after he or she is posted as a college’s principal,” a teacher of the Government Post-Graduate Degree College Peshawar told Dawn.

He said college teachers were entitled to 40 per cent ‘concession’ in income tax on salary but there’s no such entitlement for college principals.

“It is a wrong policy of the government that a professor’s responsibilities increases but salary decreases after becoming principal,” he said.

The teacher said after a reduction of Rs10,000 in salary, a principal got only Rs600 as allowance from the higher education department.

Senior teachers unwilling to assume office for lower salary, increased duty

He said the government colleges had many competent academicians, who had the talents to improve educational standard there but they didn’t take up the stressful yet low-paid job of principal.

“Under such circumstances, the teachers with plans to misuse college funds secure the posts of principals,” he said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Colleges Teachers Association president Nasrullah Yousafzai told Dawn that the government should announce handsome incentives for college principals to attract competent and honest professors.

“The principal has a major role to play in a college. Like a captain of a sports team, he or she is to take care of all academic and administrative matters of the college, so the post should be made attractive for potential candidates,” he said.

Mr. Yousafzai said the Rs600 allowance for principals was just a peanut and that ironically, it hadn’t been revised for decades.

A college principal said there was no financial reward for principals though they had to face accountability for ‘audit paras’ after retirement.

“A principal is responsible for everything happening in the college. He is the administrative, financial and academic head of the college,” he said.

The principal said the higher education department had proposed the Rs25,000 allowance and an official vehicle for college principals after the PTI formed the government in the province three years ago, but the proposal was brushed under the carpet.

He said under unfavourable circumstances, professors were unwilling to head colleges by and large.

A Charsadda college’s principal told Dawn that ironically, principals were bound by the rules to be present in colleges during summer and winter vacations.

“The principals will be ready to take classes besides discharging their own administrative and financial responsibilities if the government announces 40 per cent concession in income tax for them like teachers,” he said.

He said currently, some principals acted as coordinators among principals of other colleges and the higher education department.

The principal said coordinators had a very hectic job to do but they were given no additional financial incentives.

When contacted, adviser to the chief minister on higher education Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani said a plan was under the consideration of the department to declare colleges in the province autonomous educational institutions.

He said the decision in that respect would be made in two weeks.

Mr. Ghani said the one-line budget would be allocated for each college in which the department had proposed Rs50,000 as allowance for each principal.

“We also want to give college principals official vehicles,” he said.

The adviser said sometime, the department made a professor the college principal but he requested the department to withdraw that order.

Published in Dawn September 18th, 2016