ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: A large number of federal government teachers have not been provided official accommodation, Dawn has learnt.

According to official documents, 6,287 teachers work in the federal education department, but only 574 have been provided official residence. During the last couple of years, 135 teachers applied for official accommodation, but they have yet not received any positive response.

It is worth mentioning here that earlier the State Office of the housing ministry handled accommodation cases of government employees, including teachers.

But, about two years back, the government handed the responsibility to the departments concerned. Now every government department has a separate office to handle accommodation cases of their employees.

Talking to Dawn, a senior teacher of Islamabad Model College for Boys G-6 (IMCB) said: “My case of hiring has been approved for the last one year and nine months, but, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has yet to issue me the cheque.”

It is a uphill task to get the housing facility approved from the FDE, said a teacher on condition of anonymity.

He suggested that the government should streamline salary structures and include everything such as house rent, medical allowance etc., in the salary, “so that we could manage on our own”.

Supporting his colleague, another teacher of the same college argued that house owners were least interested in renting out their property to government employees.

And, if at all they agree, the house rent they demand is always more than the teachers are allowed to avail. “Thus in both cases, we have to suffer,” he said.

The government always talks about improving the service structure of teachers, but on the ground, things are moving from bad to worse, he said.