GUJRAT: The local education department has not been paying additional allowance of Rs5,000 every month to teachers who have a degree equivalent to MPhil, in violation of the provincial government`s policy despite the teachers raising the issue before the authorities concerned.
The teachers claimed they were eligible for the allowance and planned to lodge a protest or move court against the local authorities.
Scores of educators who had a Master of Science (MS) degree in computer science also had equiva-lence certificate issued by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) that declared the degree equivalent to an MPhil since a person completes 18 years of education after receiving an MS degree.
The teachers claimed they had been knocking on the door of the executive district officer (EDO) of the education department for the last few months to convince him to approve additional allowance in their monthly salary.
They complained the authorities did not pay heed to their repeated requests and said the notification issued by the school education department mentioned MPhil as basic qualification for eligibility for the monthly allowance, so applicants with an MS degree did not meet the criteria.
They said education departments had accepted MS degree-holders inneighbouring districts, but the Gujrat executive district officer had not agreed yet.
The educators were told by local authorities that a formal letter had been written to provincial authorities in the department seeking clarification over the issue.
But the teachers claimed they were being told about such a letter for several months and no specific information was being provided to them regarding the correspondence between officials.
District Coordination Officer Liaquat Ali Chattha told Dawn he was unaware of the situation and had sought a report from EDO (Education) Kashif Tahir besides issuing directions to expedite the procedure of clarification within a week so the educators could be given their right.
