Time to pay teachers

This refers to the letter ‘Who pays teachers?’ (May 5) by Fowzia Jalal Shah. I completely agree with the views expressed by the writer who wishes that the orders passed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding the advance fee collection for summer vacations should be extended to other provinces. On the one hand, these private schools demand parents to pay advance fees for summer vacations. On the other hand, they do not consider it essential to pay advance salaries to their teachers. It seems that the owners of these institutions think that their teachers can live without being paid. They conveniently forget that there are many teachers who have to support families with the pay.

The irony is that even the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) has turned a blind eye towards some of these unjustified rules of private schools. As per policy of the private school I teach at in Islamabad, teachers are paid their salaries for the two-month-long summer vacations in installments with salaries of September and October. This is unjust. The authorities are requested to take immediate steps to alleviate the suffering of both parents and teachers at the hands of private institutions operating across the country.

Group captain (r) Saeed Nawaz Khan

Rawalpindi