The Elementary School Teachers (EST) of 355 educational institutions under the FGEI Cantt Garrison Directorate across the country have demanded to upgrade from Grade 14 to Grade 16.
It has been demanded that teachers who have not been promoted for years should be promoted. According to the teachers, along with the upgrade in Grade 16, three to five additional annual increments should be given to EST teachers and the same facility should be given to all TGT and SST teachers as well as honorary teachers who have also been asked to increase the honorarium. Teachers said that the formula developed by the Federal Government Educational Institutions Cantt Garrison Directorate for the promotion and induction of EST teachers is 25% teacher development and 75% recruitment of new teachers based on gross abuse and injustice. Due to which thousands of teachers have been waiting for promotion for the last 16 years while recruitment of new teachers is going on every year. According to the teachers, FGEIs Directorate has not promoted EST teachers since 2007. By the year 2022, hundreds of new teachers have been recruited, thus depriving thousands of teachers of their basic rights.
Teachers Farhat Abbas, Malik Gulzar Ahmad, Arif Abbasi, Osama Mumtaz Qureshi and others said that inflation in the country has risen to such an extent that they have not been able to meet their current salaries. They said that EST teachers have also been completely ignored in the four-tier formula which is a gross abuse and cruelty. They told teachers were working on the lowest salaries in the country. They said that the development of teachers and builders of the nation was not taken into consideration in the priorities of any government. Teachers whose salaries should be higher than all other sectors have always been completely ignored, forcing them to live on extremely low salaries and live a life of white supremacy.
The teachers have appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif, Defence Minister and Secretary Defence to provide special package for the salaries of the teachers and especially the EST teachers by giving them upgradation and departmental promotion and redressal of their grievances so that they can lead dignified lives in the society. The Federal Government has increased the salaries by 15 percent and approved the merger of ad hoc allowances with their basic salary. The increase in salaries would be applicable from the new fiscal year from July 1, 2022.
