Islamabad, March 12 (IANS) Around 20,000 teachers working in 4,300 schools functioning under the Punjab Education Initiatives Management Authority (PEIMA) in Pakistan have not been paid salaries for the past three months, causing financial problems for them, local media reported.
Many teachers would quit their jobs due to non-payment of salaries, leading to closure of schools and impacting education of nearly 600,000 students. Teachers and schools administrations said that salaries of PEIMA partner schools for January, February and March remained pending, making it difficult for the schools to pay salaries and manage expenses. They warned that delay had forced many teachers to consider quitting their jobs for having stable income, Pakistan's leading daily Dawn reported.
The educationists said that shortage of teachers could affect academic activities in thousands of schools and jeopardise the future of students studying under the programme if the issue is not addressed by the authorities. The teachers complained that they were given assurances each week that payments would be released soon, however, the continued delay had deteriorated their financial conditions and impacted their household expenditure. They warned of holding protest against the authorities if their three-months salary is not released before Eid.
Speaking to Dawn, PEIMA Chief Executive Officer Imtiaz Shahid Gondal revealed that salaries up to January had been released and the authorities were engaged in processing the release of salaries for February month, which he said were expected to be disbursed within the next five to seven days.
Last month, a government report revealed that 26.2 million children in Pakistan still remain out of school.
Pakistan's Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training released the 'Girls’ Education Statistics and Trends Report 2023-24' which revealed the number of children who remain out of school, Dawn reported.
According to the report, 26.2 million children remain out of schools, including 3.4 million girls. The report also revealed the funding issues, stressing that Pakistan education financing had weakened with the national education share reducing from 13 per cent to 11 per cent and majority of provinces reducing fundings, especially Punjab and Sindh.
The report revealed that 19 per cent of schools were equipped with digital tools. In addition, 23 per cent of schools have installed ramps for specially-abled students, however, schools do not have adequate specialised assistive learning materials.
While launching the report, Pakistan's Federal Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui stated that the primary school completion rate for girls had increased 75 per cent to 89 per cent.
--IANS
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