PESHAWAR: The Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation hasn’t paid salary to the teachers of its more than 600 girls’ community schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the last 18 months causing serious financial problems for them.

The foundation has established around 3,000 community schools for girls across the province during the last few years. Of them, 600 were set up in the financial year 2017-18.

These educational institutions are meant to enrol out-of-school girls in the areas, which don’t have government primary schools for girls within one kilometer radius.

The government hires a woman teacher for every school on a contractual basis and pays her Rs15,000 a month, while the community provides a two-room building for classes.

Official insists dept not releasing funds despite repeated requests

The government also provides textbooks and class consumable items, including blackboard, white chalk and a chair for the teacher and mats for students.

“Around 100 students are enrolled in the [ESEF] school, where I have been serving for two years,” a teacher from Mansehra district told Dawn.

She said all her students were fifth graders.

The teacher said enrolments in her school were encouraging as parents were satisfied with her teaching methods but the nonpayment of salary for 18 months by the foundation had stressed her out.

She said she spent Rs3,000 on transport every month as her school was located more than a kilometer away from her house.

The teacher complained that the education department didn’t provide her with books and class consumable items for students on time and thus, wasting their precious time.

A teacher posted to an ESEF school in Mardan district told Dawn that her students totalled around 80, including girls and boys, and the strength was ‘more than sufficient’ for a community school.

She said the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation had appointed her on a contractual basis in April 2018 but it paid her salary for six months during the last two years.

“The non-payment of salary has disappointed me though I work very hard with students, whose number is increasing every month,” she said.

A senior official of the foundation confirmed non-payment of the salary to 600 teachers and insisted that his high-ups knew about it.

He blamed the teachers’ misery on the finance department’s failure to release funds.

“We approached the finance department time and again to release the funds for payment of the teachers but in vain,” he said.

The official said the foundation had utilised Rs102 million funds allocated for those schools more than a year ago and was struggling to get more funds from the finance department.

He said the foundation had submitted a proposal to the finance department for the release of around Rs250 million but it had yet to be released.

The official also insisted that the previous management of the foundation didn’t pursue the matter seriously to the misery of poor teachers.

“The incumbent managing director has held several meetings with the finance minister and secretary, who agreed to release funds after the normalisation of the situation caused by the Covid-19 outbreak,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2020