When it comes to teachers, there is different policy. In almost all the policies devised and implemented for the government officials of other ministries, the teaching fraternity face discrimination.
There is nothing for teachers as far as rental ceiling, timely promotion, and other perks and privileges are concerned.
Government quarters have already been alarmed by media reports that bureaucrats of BPS-20 and above have been misusing this policy and there is no check and balance. They have been drawing transport monetisation allowance and keeping government vehicles in their possession simultaneously. On the other hand teachers are still deprived of this facility.
After the upgradation of teachers, over 200 associate professors, principals, headmasters and headmistresses were promoted to grade 20 who, earlier, used to retire in the grades 18 and 19 because of lack of any promotion formula. Like other government officers in BPS-20 and above, they should have been entitled to avail the allowances under monetisation policy of the government but it needs a clarification whether they are allowed to avail the allowance or not because they are teachers.
The policy requires that for the grant of the transport monetisation allowance, the concerned officers should provide a certificate signed by the Principal Accounting Officer i.e. secretary of the concerned ministry that they are not using government vehicles. On the demand of Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR), the grade 20 teachers and principals wrote to the ministry of capital administration and development (CAD) that they should be given in writing that they have not been using any officials vehicles so they should be allowed to avail the monetisation transport facility. But the ministry instead of giving no objection certificate to the teachers wrote a letter to the Cabinet Division in October to clarify whether the teachers are allowed to avail the facility or not.
And the Cabinet Division after sitting over the letter for over two months has written back to the ministry and raised five objections and queries including whether the teachers are civil servants or not. It seems that exercise may take a long time to reach a decision whether the teachers be allowed to avail the allowance or not.
Though the teachers till grade 19 have been receiving conveyance allowance according to their grades, those who have been upgraded to grade 20 neither have been getting any conveyance allowance nor monetisation transport facility due absence of any policy for them.
“The principals and teachers in BPS-20 sent a written request, in this regard, to secretary CAD in September 2012. Instead of giving them the required certificate, CAD wrote to Cabinet Division for clarification, in order to put the issue in pipeline. It means nobody wants to give the benefit of monetisation to the teachers. Teachers are being given the same treatment in the civil sector as the low ranking army men receive at the hands of their bosses,” complained a teacher.
An associate professor in BPS-20 of H-8 college while commenting on this discrimination said, “Teaching is perhaps universally glorified profession in terms of clichés and moral speeches but financially least lucrative among all the modern fields of life. Becoming a teacher in the third world counties is like opting a career of life-long suffering and depravities. There is nothing for teachers, no rental ceiling, no timely promotion and no perks enjoyed by other officials. How can a teacher deliver in a classroom if he is not mentally free?”
Another associate professor of H-9 college wishing anonymity said, ‘Teachers in Pakistan are silent spectators of bureaucrats both civil and military, and officials who work in the centers of power, plundering the public money. It seems relevant to look back in the ancient history when slaves were used for teaching. The monetisation policy has brought the slaves and the lords at the same pedestal, let’s see how this dichotomy is settled.”
President of Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA) Tahir Mahmood demanded that ‘the teachers should not be treated as stepchildren. The benefit of the policy should also be extended to those teachers who are in BPS-20 and above as they are government officers too’.
When Cuadra moved with his mother from Vancouver to Ottawa at age 11, his troubles began. At Queen Elizabeth in Grade 7 and 8, he fumbled words when asked to read aloud in class, and despite a quick mind he would regularly flub math equations. A specialist eventually concluded he had dyslexia, and he was dispatched to a downtown Ottawa school's "special education" class.
When kids asked him why he arrived midterm, he brashly and dishonestly told them he had knifed a kid in his previous school. When mocked for being in a "special" class, he responded with his fists.
"I remember feeling bad. 'Why did I just punch that guy?' I had remorse. I wasn't a bad person, but I needed to be bad in order not to look dumb. And the second I punched them they stopped teasing."
At around age 15, Cuadra hit rock bottom. He was thrown out of Rideau high school after the desk-throwing incident, and was forced to leave his mother's East End apartment after a booze-and drug-laced party he hosted while she was in El Salvador. He said he lived with a succession of friends and then for a time on the streets, panhandling and dealing drugs. He had several brushes with the law on minor property offences, and remembers standing up in court - with a shaved head, earrings and tattoos, and clothes resembling what he'd soon be selling at his hip-hop fashion stores - proudly admitting his guilt while his mother wept behind him.
But when they returned, they sold out the entire stock in two days. Working 18-hour days and sleeping at the store, the two young men continued that pattern for six months before moving into a much more visible storefront on nearby Rideau Street, just a couple of blocks from the Rideau Mall in downtown Ottawa that is a popular hangout for young Ottawans.
Cuadra knew he was onto something, and knew competition would soon arrive, so he launched a rapid expansion. Many of the people he sold franchises to were friends with similar socio-economic backgrounds.
When urbanwear fell out of fashion, Cuadra sold off parts of the operation and finally closed the Rideau Street location in 2011.
He is now a branding and marketing specialist for his company, High Impact Media. He has also launched a company called SolveProProperties Inc. that helps homeowners in Ontario and Quebec sell their properties without incurring hefty commissions. He plans to expand to Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver in 2013.
Cuadra, a friend of this reporter since shortly after his arrival in Vancouver at age nine, has also become a professional motivational speaker and often addresses youth groups.
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