ISLAMABAD: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) is facing a severe shortage of funds to clear the pending dues of employees working in schools and colleges against hiring of houses, causing unrest among the teaching and non-teaching staff.

The FDE is the regulatory body of around 430 schools and colleges in Islamabad.

The employees, mainly teachers, have been complaining that due to the overdue hiring payment, their landlords had been asking them to vacate their houses.

“Teaching and non-teaching staffers are in a state of constant pressure from landlords. We request FDE and the education ministry to resolve this issue immediately otherwise we will have no other options but to stage a protest,” said Malik Ameer Khan, President School Teachers’ Association.

He said that besides pending liabilities, the ministry had also stopped entertaining new hiring cases. “This means teachers, who were hired recently, can’t avail of this facility. We are concerned about their future as living in rented houses in Islamabad is highly difficult under current inflation.”

He added that around 5,000 employees of FDE were availing of the hiring facility and instead of allocating separate funds the government should include the hiring amount in the salaries of employees.

Meanwhile, FDE’s finance wing through a letter dated October 6 informed the education ministry about the pending hiring funds. The letter stated that Rs2.18 billion were required to pay dues to the employees till June 2023.

“The institutes under the ambit of this directorate frequently approach this office and have entered into litigation over the inadequate budget allocation which hardly meets the requirement in ERE and a peanut amount is left for hiring which is not sufficient to pay rent to house owners,” stated the FDE’s letter addressed to the education ministry.

“This office [FDE] raised a request for a supplementary grant amounting to Rs1.9 billion in the fiscal year 2021-22, but was not approved. This year, the pending liabilities piled up and carried forward hence an amount of Rs2.18 billion is required to pay dues to employees till June 2023,” read the letter.

The FDE through the letter also sought funds for the encashment of leave prior to retirement (LPR) and travelling grant.

An officer told Dawn that the FDE was in the dire need of Rs2.45 billion for three main heads: hiring of houses and pending leave encashment of LPR and travelling allowances. The officer said FDE’s letter was being considered in the ministry and soon it will be sent to the ministry of finance.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the federal government a few days ago released Rs640 million to the FDE for utility expenditure of six new colleges and salaries of daily-wage employees etc.

There are over 1,000 daily wage teaching and no-teaching staff who are getting a mere Rs25,000 per month salary set by the federal government as the minimum wage. These employees have been making efforts for their regularisation.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2022