Director Schools finally signs salary lists of 780 unpaid JSTs

Teachers hired in two phases in November 2014 and May 2015 are yet to receive their salaries

Karachi

As a large number of junior school teachers (JSTs) posted in Karachi who had passed the mandatory entrance test formulated by the National Testing Service more than a year ago staged another protest on MA Jinnah Road on Tuesday to demand their outstanding salaries, Director Schools Mushtaq Shaikh signed the documents to release the payments.

The protesters gathered outside the NJV School at around 10am, where the offices of the Sindh education department’s Reform Support Unit is situated, and blocked the MA Jinnah Road causing a massive traffic jam in the area.

They decried that junior school teachers hired with them across the province had been withdrawing their salaries regularly but only those hired in Karachi hadn’t received a single penny for the past 12 months.

“The Director Schools (secondary and higher secondary) is not signing the salary lists,” they said. “More than 750 JSTs have been forced into serious financial crisis due to lack of support by the provincial government, secretary education and other officials responsible for disbursement of our salaries.”

They said they had also visited the education secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho who had advised them to keep faith in the system. “The payment of salaries have been delayed unnecessarily delay but it will be given to genuine teachers in the next couple of months,” he had said.

The traffic congestion in the area grew so bad that deputy commissioner for district South Muhammad Saleem Rajput had to intervene. He invited a protesters’ delegation to his office to talk things out and when he was apprised of the situation he placed a call to Director Schools Mushtaq Shaikh upon which the latter ensured he would sign the lists before he left for home on Tuesday.

When the deputy commissioner shared the news with the visiting delegation they decided to clear the MA Jinnah and gathered at the Court Road instead where they waited for hours to get further confirmation of the good news from the education department itself.

Dr Pechuho explained that the JSTs had been hired against existing positions and the World Bank had raised an objection on this wrongdoing. The education department then ensured the international donor that the posts will be adjusted in the same union councils where they were hired, instead of posting them in other schools.

After the World Bank approved the idea, work started on the preparation of salary lists and after all it was signed on Tuesday by the director schools.

Dr Pechuho mentioned that that WB gives a green node after which work on preparation of the salary lists was started and now it was signed today.

The hiring of more than 780 JSTs had actually taken place in three phases. The first lot had been given their appointment letters on November 28, 2014, and were asked to report to work in December. The second batch were handed their appointment letters on May 5, 2015 while the third batch were hired on September 3, 2015.

The total number of JSTs recruited till May 2015 was 780, but the required paperwork for releasing the salaries of even those appointed in November last year had remained stuck somewhere in the offices of the education department.

Meanwhile, Director Schools Mushtaq Shaikh claimed he had recently taken over the post so he hadn’t known about the issue and wasn’t able to sign the lists earlier. But earlier, the teachers had claimed that Shaikh had not bothered to meet them when they had gone to see him at his office.