CHAKWAL, Dec 12: At a time when Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif is bent upon upgrading the education sector via his pet projects, Danish Schools and laptops, teachers — the most important resource in the system — continue to suffer.

Newly recruited teachers in Chakwal district are a case in point. The district administration recruited 1,303 teachers in April in scale BPS 9, 14 and 16 and they have not been paid for the past four months. It is a massive backlog and officials claim that there is a financial crunch.

“If there is a financial crunch in the province why have not teachers of other districts faced the same problem?” asks one teacher. “If there was no fund for salaries, why were we recruited?” moans another teacher.

The teachers said that they had submitted bills of arrears of four months (from April to September) a month ago, in the District Account Office but to no avail.

When contacted, District Coordination Officer Ahmad Aziz Tarar said that he would look into the matter. “The arrears would be released soon”, he added.

On the other hand, teachers are also worried due to many other problems. “The education sector is marred by political meddling. Teachers get transferred from one place to another on the order of local parliamentarians, instead of Executive District Officer of Education”, says
Qazi Saqib Naveed, President of SES Teachers Association Chakwal.

“Transfer is our right but to get this right we have to knock the door of politicians. And politicians can also throw a teacher from one station to another, anytime, just to facilitate their blue-eyed boys”, complained another teacher.