Balochistan Point Voice of Nation
The Chief Minister of Balochistan time and again expresses his determination to promote education in Balochistan. According to Chief Minister of Balochistan his Government has imposed educational emergency. He claims that the educational budget has been raised from 4 per cent to 25 per cent. We also hear about the efforts to provide all the modern facilities to the younger generations for ensuring them quality education and facilitated life to the masses in the fields of education, health and other fields. However, the above mentioned quotations seem not less than exaggerations when we see teachers demanding for their salaries in different parts of Balochistan.
The overstatements of educational revolution in Balochistn become unsound when we see number of hurdles confronting education sector in Balochistan, where one of them is no payment of salaries to the female teachers appointed mostly in primary schools in different districts of Balochistan. Currently more than 150 Teachers are demanding for their salaries who were appointed in last five years by United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Recently, more than dozens of female teachers held a press conference in Khuzdar and said that they were forced to starve due to no salary for more than ten months. According to them through an agreement between government of Baluchistan and UNICEF’s education section they were appointed and it was agreed that they would be regularized after three years; however, since UNICEF concluded its project in Kalat division they were not being paid. They added that after UNICEF‘s project conclusion government of Balochistan was responsible to pay their salaries.
The teachers’ appealed government of Balochistan to recognize their plea so that they continue their services to the nation. They said that if they discontinued teaching as protest so it would affect educational career of thousands of students. The teachers from Khuzdr demanded that government should prove itself as education welcoming and fulfill their demands.
A group of teacher from Kalat district also informed The Balochistan Point that all Joiner English Teachers appointed by UNICEF have been deprived of their salaries, therefore, to pressurize the government and responsible authorizes they have decided to boycott taking classes at their schools. They further said that if they were not paid salaries and be regularized soon they would prolong their protest for their right.
No doubt, despite huge amount of funds allocated for educational development no remarkable changes have been witnessed. Numbers of schools are still with no facility, even the books have not been provided to the students required in the middle and high sections in the schools.
It is need of the time government should be sincere in its promises and rather than doing its own hyperboles it should make tangible measures. Governments’ first and foremost priority should be provision of salaries to the female teachers, assurance of facilities and protection of teachers in the already backward Balochistan. If possible theses teachers, who have been serving for more than five year should be permanent so that government’s sincerity is proved regarding the dream of educated Balochistan.
Editor-in-Chief
The Balochistan Point
Published in the Balochistan Point on July 12, 2014
