LAHORE: The services of 18 female temporary/visiting teachers of the Divisional Public School (DPS), Township, have been terminated after the announcement of early summer vacation due to the Covid-19.

There are reports of identical move by the Model Town DPS as well.

One of the sacked teachers, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn the Township DPS administration had sacked all the visiting staff after the school was closed. She said that along with termination letter, the administration had given them half salary for the month of March.

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Minister for School Education Murad Raas had directed all the public and private sector schools not to lay off staff.

The sacked teacher said the laid-off staff had lodged a complaint against their sacking with the Pakistan Citizen Portal of the government.

A copy of the complaint states: “The government had ordered public and private sector schools to give full salary to daily wagers or temporary (ad hoc) employees and no deduction shall be made but this act is not obeyed by the Divisional Public School’s Township and Model Town branches. There are a number of temporary staff working in Divisional Public School and some of them were given termination letters on March 13.”

It further states that after the announcement of the summer holidays, the teachers started receiving termination letters on WhatsApp, saying that the DPS no more needed their services.

The teachers demanded the government take notice of the matter and direct the DPS to follow the government orders of not laying off the staff.

The teachers said they were receiving Rs25,500 per month and the DPS had given them half salary (Rs13,000 each) of March with the termination letters.

Talking to Dawn, DPS Township Principal Shamila confirmed that the administration had terminated the services of the staff but she was not authorised to comment on it.

Issuing directions for the 20pc fee cut by schools on April 6, Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja had directed the private schools to refrain from deduction in salary of the teachers or lay-offs.

The DPS is a network of schools functioning in almost all divisions of Punjab. This scheme was initiated in 1958-59 under the “Sharif Commission”. The first two schools were built simultaneously in Faisalabad and Model Town, Lahore, in 1963.

Set up on large tracts of land surrendered by the Punjab government at prime locations, their operations and maintenance are mainly funded through private philanthropy and fees. They also get annual grants from the government for their development projects.

Each school is managed by a board of governors, led by the divisional commissioner or the deputy commissioner concerned.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2020