PESHAWAR, Jan 31: NWFP Governor Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai on Wednesday urged teachers in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) to curb absenteeism and turn schools into enviable centres of basic education.

He was talking to a delegation of the South Waziristan chapter of the All-Tribal Teachers Association at the Governor’s House on Wednesday.

Criticising the performance of schools in Fata, the governor said that most of them needed to be overhauled to create a solid education base for the younger generation.

Leader of the delegation Khan Malik Khan Mehsud assured the governor that the teachers were committed to their profession but they were facing certain difficulties which needed to be removed.

Highlighting the problems faced by teachers, he said that a number of additional rooms needed to be built in the office of Agency Education Officer, adding that Maktab schools and women’s educational centres also needed to be regularised.

He also requested for innncreasing the salary of teachers of Maktab schools. Currently, they were getting a salary of only Rs350 a month besides calling for an increase in the Rs75 allowance for working in remote areas.

He also urged the governor for provision of proper school furniture in all Fata schools.

The governor assured the delegation that genuine demands of the teachers’ community would be examined and steps would be taken for improving working conditions for teachers. The governor also advised tribal students to rely more on merit and depend less on quotas. “That is how they will be able compete with students of other areas,” he said.—PPI