Many private schools not paying minimum wages to teachers

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Schools paying less than Rs 6,000 fixed by government
* EDO says schools present inaccurate salary figures before registration

By Ali Usman

LAHORE: Although the government has fixed minimum wage of labour at Rs 6,000, teachers in many private schools have not benefited from this decision.

There are many private schools in Lahore which disregard the government-implemented minimum wage and exploit their teachers. The number of private schools registered with the Education Department is 5,500 in the Lahore district according to available data. According to sources in the Education Department, there are many schools in the city -including those with a large number of enrolled students- that pay their teachers only Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 and complain of few resources and many expenses.

There are also a large number of schools which have charged their students full fees during the summer vacation and have either not paid their teachers or paid them less than their fixed salaries.

Afia Ihsan, a teacher at a private school, said most of the students at this school submitted their fees before the summer vacation. However, the school management paid only half the salaries to the teachers. She said there were many graduate teachers who were paid less than Rs 6,000 in private schools

Shabana Nadeem, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) teacher with years of teaching experience, said her salary was less than Rs 6,000. She said teachers’ salaries increased with the passage of time in the government sector, but there was no such mechanism in the private sector. Nadeem said the government should bring private schools under its control and ensure that the minimum wage policy is implemented in private schools.

Inaccurate figures: Lahore Executive District Officer (Education) (EDO) Muhammad Arshad said many private schools in the city defied the minimum wage policy. He said such schools presented inaccurate figures of their teachers’ salaries before being registered, and later did not correct these. Arshad said action could be taken against such schools.

All Pakistan Private School Management Association (APPSMA) Chairman Adeeb Jawadani said many schools in the city did not comply with the minimum wage policy. He said inspection teams which visited schools before registration should only register them based on merit and schools comprising two or three rooms should not be registered. “Government schools do not cater to the education requirements of all the children, so private schools are necessary. However, the school inspectors should not take bribes and should register schools only on merit,” Jawadani said.

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