PESHAWAR, Dec 8: Speakers at a workshop here on Thursday urged teachers to do their job conscientiously and also spoke about factors which hindered them from fulfilling their responsibility. “Teachers are responsible for increasing the level of interest of students in studies. But, unfortunately teachers ignore their duties,” said a Rawalpindi-based educationist, Mrs Samia Mubashir.

She was speaking at the one-day workshop held by the Islamabad-based Fazaldad Human Rights Institute (FHRI) on “Human Rights and Education,” at the Regional Institute of Training and Education (RITE) here.

She said that teachers’ low salaries were the main reason why they were unwilling to take greater interest in their jobs, adding that in the process the students suffered. She said that only teachers could polish primary-level students.

She said that it was the right of the students to learn from their teachers, but, instead, they were playing with their future.

She said that instead of teaching properly, teachers taunt students on petty issues and discourage them and ultimately making students quit schools, adding that the level of student dropout was increasing at an alarming rate. Stressing the need for pictures as a primary-level teaching tool, she said that colourful pictures could greatly accelerate learning in children.

Hafiz Bahadar Khan, principal RITE, said that parents should invest in their children so that they could grow up as useful citizens of the society.