Protecting teachers

On May 15 this year, Mr A received a phone call from the head of campus at his school informing him that the school no longer required his services and he would not be entitled to any remuneration beyond the then current month of May.

Upon probing into the reason behind this apparently arbitrary and shocking decision, Mr A was insultingly told that that the work he does in the school can be carried out by any random member of the domestic staff.

A couple of decades back, Mr A had qualified as an engineer from NED, Karachi’s best engineering university and could have availed offers from family members of joining them to settle in Canada. He, however, chose to stay back and instead dedicated his years teaching science in private schools.

His choice was even more specific, as he was determined to teach students in Islamic schools and somehow managed to make his ends meet with his modest school salary. That fateful day, after serving an Islamic school for nine years, Mr A was not only slapped with a termination, but also cruelly belittled for his contributions to the school.

Thinking about the instant fallout of losing a job in the time of this pandemic and economic uncertainty was certainly painful. And the manner in which he was told to exit left him guessing as to what was remotely Islamic or educated about such actions. His emails to the school founders, who are renowned corporate figures, received no response. Living in a rented apartment with four children and no personal savings, this ageing man can only pray for a silver lining from somewhere.

Across the same Islamic school in the girls’ campus, freshly graduated MBAs and doctors, are regretting their decisions of forgoing their careers. Asked to clean shelves, drop each child to the gate when their cars arrive and receive deductions at every excuse when no over-time structures are in place, they feel that they are in an abusive workplace which simply exploits their commitment to this cause of education and Islam.

Nevertheless, such working conditions are not specific to specific schools. Employees across private schools need protection. Breaches of contractual obligations, lack of adherence to the agreed job descriptions, lack of professionalism, sudden termination, unfairness and most importantly the exploitation of the younger faculty’s passion to serve the cause of education at the hands of school bosses runs rampant across private schools.

Sports days, carnivals, academic evenings, theaters and substituting for absent teachers are acceptable excuses where school leaders can smilingly squeeze his/her teachers for work without paying a single penny extra. Whether they are schools catering for the lower-middle class or the elite schools of Clifton and Defence serving the upper class, the working conditions for employees in schools seldom vary.

The consequences of such unjust working conditions are profound. Apart from subjecting our teachers to excessive burden and anguish, it gravely deprives them of their due human rights. This in turn has a direct impact on teacher morale and thus, adversely affects the quality of education delivered in schools. Further, hearsay about this dimension in professional circles prevents talented graduates from joining schools.

While we would desire schools with inspiring faculty members for our children and the school websites may also market that, it is the lack of employee protection at the hands of school leaders which prevents the passionate and self-driven young minds from sticking around in the teaching profession.

It is, therefore, tremendously important that our faculty members be protected from the unfair and unjust practices of private schools, including these recent religious schools. One would wish that teachers could have their unions that could speak for themselves, but we are past that era. In the current situation, after the passage of the 18th Amendment in our constitution and education falling in the provincial domain, the onus lies on the provincial governments to ensure that private schools are operating under the ambit of the law and that the interests of employees are duly protected.

There should also be free legal aid for school employees to seek justice in courts of law and file suits against their employers for cases of workplace harassment, bullying, unfair terminations and failure to abide by agreed contractual clauses. Private school associations should also become more active forums and develop standards for compliance, rather than just announcing holidays.

Further, civil society organizations working in the field of education which have thus far devoted most of their attention to public-sector education or schools in low-income areas should also play their role in highlighting the plight of teachers in the private sector and advocate for their rights.

For education to improve, we must attract and sustain highly talented individuals as teachers. However, that will never be the case if they are left at the mercy of school barons. Finally, it bears mentioning here that our laws and rules, besides restraining certain behaviours, are important normative statements symbolizing what our society stands for. If we are to be a society which values traditions of knowledge and learning, then we ought to place our teachers on a higher pedestal and take care of their well-being.

The writer is a faculty member at the Government Elementary College of Teacher Education, Hussainabad, being managed by Durbeen.

Email: abdul.haseeb@gece.edu.pk