Moalims

Around 400 recently-appointed junior school teachers (JST) on Thursday staged a protest demonstration outside the NJV School, the office of Sindh education department’s Reform Support Unit, on MA Jinnah Road to demand the payment of their past 11 months’ salaries.

The teachers said they had been given appointment letters in November 2014 and they had reported to work a month later, from December. All of these teachers had been appointed after they were declared qualified for the posts by the National Testing Service.

However, said the teachers, not a single salary had been paid by the education department.

As the protesters staged a sit-in on the main MA Jinnah Road outside the building of NJV School, a large traffic jam developed in Saddar and surrounding areas which prompted the police and Rangers to arrive at the location and try to mitigate the situation.

The law enforcers asked the teachers to vacate the main road so vehicular movement could resume. The junior school teachers complied with the request and decided to shift the sit-in near the main entrance of the office of Sindh education department’s Reform Support Unit, situated in an alley exiting from MA Jinnah Road.

As the education department takes on and tackles the ire over ghost teachers, the protesting JSTs told The News that since certain sections of the government hadn’t bothered to complete the due paperwork, the process for releasing their salaries could not be completed, hence rendering them without any compensation against their work.

“It is the utter failure of the Sindh government and education department. We don’t have any other jobs and in the absence of salaries it has become impossible for us to feed our families,” said the protesters.

Most of the teachers mentioned that they had been giving joining letters in November last year but the hiring of more than 780 JSTs had actually taken place in three phases.

One lot of the JSTs were handed out joining letters on November 28, 2014, and another lot was given joining letters on May 5, 2015. The total number of JSTs recruited till May 2015 was 780 but the necessary paperwork for releasing salaries, even for those appointed last, remains stuck somewhere in the bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, a third batch of JSTs had been appointed as late as on September 3, 2015.

“There are over 850 junior school teachers who were hired in three different phases since the last quarter of 2014,” said one of the teachers who led the protest. “Around 372 teachers have reported for work but they are working on temporary basis since the schools they were posted in didn’t have any open vacancies for them.”

Later on, the head of Reform Support Unit Faisal Ahmed Uqaili and the chief of its district recruitment committee Saleem Awam came out to talk to the protesting teachers. Both officials lamented that teachers’ salaries were not being released due to problems with “sanctioned new posts” against the appointments made since November last year. However, they assured the JSTs that a list of around 500 teachers will be cleared from the offices in the next three weeks after which these teachers would be able to withdraw their salaries.

However, the protestors called out the bluff and pointed out that after issuance of the list of 500 teachers, it would take another few months for the salaries to be released since it was a lengthy process and involved approvals from several government departments.

One of the teachers said a list of 281 primary school teachers had been approved around six months ago but the teachers had only been able to withdraw their first salaries only last month while the remaining received it this month. “There are more than 500 primary school teachers out of which 281 have been able to get their salaries as the other keep on waiting,” he said.

“However, they are at least here talking to us. Their word is a good sign. If the officials fail to deliver results then we would come out again to protest.”

Meanwhile, the director schools Karachi Mansoob Hussain Siddique during a meeting with the education secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho discussed the matter with him and it was decided that the issue will be resolved on priority basis.

News Reference