Islamabad: The teachers appointed invigilators by the Federal Directorate of Education for the centralised exams of grade V-VIII in Islamabad have complained that they are ‘disgracefully’ underpaid for the duty.
They also claim the denial of payment for last year exam duty. A woman superintendent of an exam centre told 'The News' that the remuneration of centre superintendent was fixed by the FDE at Rs250 per day though the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education paid Rs4,500-Rs 6,500 per day for the same duty.
She added that the deputy superintendent got Rs200 for the FDE exam duty against Rs3,500 and more paid by the board. "This is huge disparity between the remuneration of the FDE and the federal board." The teacher also said the invigilator got only Rs150 for the exam duty assigned by the FDE that was shamefully low remuneration for the whole long day.
She said it was the first time teachers have been deputed in distant places to conduct examinations without taking into account the high transport cost due to increase in fuel prices. "Teachers are forcefully appointed for exam duty with the FDE exploiting them through shamefully low remuneration," she said.
Another woman teacher said she and others like her were unwilling to do exam duty but felt vulnerable in their institutions, so they accepted duty that they knew was bad because speaking up came at too great a cost.
An invigilator said she was a single mother of three small children and one of them was unwell. "I have to take them to school, the daycare centre and the doctor. I was assigned double invigilation duty for both Class-V (morning) and Class-VIII (evening) by the Area Education Officer. I requested his staff members to accommodate my schedule but they asked me to provide a substitute, an indirect refusal," she said. The teacher said the taxi charged her a total of Rs800 from her home to exam centre and back to receive the remuneration of
Rs150 per duty, which was no less than a joke.