Please Hear Our Voice: Private School Teachers Cry For Low Paid Salaries, Exploitation

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Jan, 2019 ) :APP Feature Service By Iram Saba Though there are a number of teachers associations, meant to protect rights of the private teachers' community, but unfortunately no single step as yet has been taken to provide the segment a satisfactory working environment. The fees in private schools are soaring higher and higher but teachers are paid less, exploited and are forced to serve in an insecure atmosphere.

Sania Murtaza a PhD scholar who serves for a famous private school system as a subject coordinator expressing her dismay over the situation said even after serving more than a decade to the entire satisfaction of the school administration she was still afraid of losing her job anytime. "There is no protection of the job and one minor mistake can be a last day of your work" she deplored.

Sania said there was no standard mechanism of salary enhancement practiced in official institutions in annual budget. "My salary is increased quite slowly and even after dedicating my ten years in a private school I could not manage to support my family single-handedly," she said.

"People raise voice against the private schools administration and fighting legal battles in the courts of law for exorbitant fee structure but nobody ever noticed our economic condition", a physical instructor Aliya Sikandar said.

''All the credit of the students achievements is encashed by the schools administration and teachers are merely awarded certificates but no financial acknowledgement is given to fulfil economic needs,'' she complained.

Ahmed Akbar a forty year old Chemistry teacher said his salary was quite meagre as compared to his qualification and work load.

"I have three school going children and I could not give them a little time as I am always busy in marking tests and worksheets for my students, said another teacher Shazia Altaf." I still believe that teaching is a noble profession but without a proper service structure there was a chaos among the community and they were unable to teach with ease of mind and satisfaction.

She also criticised the teachers monitoring and evaluation system disrupting their confidence as the teachers were being spied at the time of delivering a lesson in the class room.

''Private school business is thriving as number of branches and franchises are emerging across the country but the teachers' betterment is always ignored who are the backbone of any academia'' said Shehla Tabassum.

"Our life remains all the time topsy-turvy as we do not get enough time to accomplish our domestic obligations; our children suffer al lot but we are not paid for the over time duties, A maths teacher Hina Khan said.

Another teacher shared her awful incident at the condition of being anonymous; I met a miscarriage when I fell from a ladder while decorating a wall for an upcoming function.

''We are bound to do all types of odd jobs in addition to teaching whenever any function or occasion approaches'', she said.

''Their criteria of hiring a teacher is that she should be an all rounder for instance a Mathematician should have strong grip over science and arts subjects but salary would be paid only for one subject'' she further stated.

Saba gul a 23 year old private educator said, administration usually prefers to hire female needy teachers because it was easy to exploit them as compared to male.

"Resultantly passionate but self-esteemed souls do not stay as they are not after money," she added.

Jaleel Ahmed a resident of Rawalpindi said his son was having education at a well-known private school system but he has to withdraw him from there because within a year .the school administration turned over three teachers which badly affected his studies.

When contacted a private school administration owner turn headmistress Ms Shehnaz Malik said that the teachers are explained all the rules and regulations at the time of appointment and they have to go through a written agreement. The terms and conditions are clearly defined to them before joining the school.