Moalims

LAHORE - “How can I feed my family on mere 4,000 rupees that I earn from full-time teaching at a school,” asks Shazia Khalid, who is the eldest among four sisters and a brother.
Her father was paralysed after an accident about a year ago. Her mother earns by sewing clothes at home. Her sisters study in a government school, and in evening give tuitions to children of the area. Her brother is young and can’t earn.
Before their father’s paralysis, the family lived a contented life. “Time never remains the same. I never thought that earning would be such a difficult job,” Shazia told The Nation.
“I was appointed teacher in a local school (The Ideal Grammar School in Shadbagh area). I have done BA Honours and teach arts subjects from 7:30am to 2:00pm in the school, six days a week.
“My salary is Rs 4,000 per month. It’s really hard and next to impossible to survive with such a low salary and make both ends meet,” Shazia explained.
Shazia is one of those thousands of young women who are striving hard to earn for their families. Her plight exposes the sorry situation of education sector in the province and the shameful exploitation of private schools, which hire full-time teachers for less than half-time salary.
“This is such a disturbing situation that an educated woman get a very low salary, where she stands in society as a teacher?” asked Shazia.
“This is the profession which is considered holy and respected. This amount is less than the minimum wages allocated by the government for labourer, which is Rs 13,000. Who is accountable for this?”
Even as it is trend at private schools to hire women educators on lower wages than their male counterparts, the miseries at home are almost the same for men teachers.
Junaid Qureshi, a BSc in mathematics, has been teaching at a low income school for Rs12,000 per month. Since he is the only bread earner in his family, he works at two different academies in evening, earning extra R10,000.
“I dropped my CV at a number of A-grade mainstream schools, but all of them rejected me after interview,” said Qureshi, who believed his short height, dark complexion to be the reasons behind.
With teary eyes and gloomy face, he said: “I live hand to mouth, I have an elder sister (age 29). All of us at home are worried about her marriage. She is of the age when she should have got married but how can we arrange the dowry as per social norms.
“My father runs a tuck shop in a school and younger sisters are studying, one in a private school and other is in college.
“At times it becomes really tough to meet even daily expenses. I feel ashamed because being the only son I couldn’t return my family for their efforts and struggle they did to make me an educated person,” Qureshi told The Nation.
While the government lacks its focus on improving the conditions of education sector, private schools has become a booming business in the province.
Low income schools are filling their pockets and pay very less to the instructors.
Even in public sector, according to Basic Pay Scale (BPS) the wages are very low. Primary school teacher of Grade 9th having qualification of BA/BSc/Bed is paid Rs17,000 per month where as elementary school teacher of grade 14th having qualification MA/MSc/BEd is paid Rs20,000 and Secondary School Teacher of grade 16th, having qualification MA/MSc/BEd is paid around Rs 25,000 only.
The transport and housing allowances are included having 45% quota for urban and 30% for rural areas. This is quite inadequate salary for a teacher who got BS/MS degree from a public sector or private educational institution at huge expense.
Education experts say the teachers are justified in their complaint of excessive work load; that is one teacher teaching all the classes in a day and also substitution for absentee teachers.
“Due to the poor infrastructure of schools, low pay, low salary increments, unpaid leave, teachers often complain of being overworked and de-motivated. While nations seeking to improve their education system are investing in teachers as major engine for academic success, it is a dilemma here in Pakistan that teaching is the least paid profession,” said Dubas Cusrow, a renowned educationist.

Published in The Nation newspaper on 25-Mar-2016