It is disillusioning to see the worsening state of the educational institutes of Pakistan, especially the private schools with regard to provision of employees’ rights and benefits. The concept of work ethics and work-life balance is indeed proving to be a theoretical concept, which is least applicable in the private schools of Pakistan. The teachers working in the private schools are not paid commensurate with their qualifications and experience as well as effort and time invested in their jobs.
In addition, the health and well-being of the teachers at the private schools seem to be neglected by the upper management. The execution of the work is deemed to be more essential than the health and the well-being of the teachers. It is indeed inhuman to see that the teachers are overburdened with intense work, and are not even compensated by adequate extrinsic and intrinsic incentives. There exists massive discrimination in provision of rewards and benefits to the head and management and the teachers in the private schools.
The question which needs to be addressed is: Are the teachers merely deemed to be work machines at the schools? Is the philosophy of work-life balance, employee motivational strategies and work ethics merely confined to books of management? Do not they have practical real-life implications?
It is indeed inevitable to address the serious anomalies existing in the private schools of Pakistan regarding inequitable distribution of resources between management and the teachers, and the poor employee motivational programmes. There should be a stringent mechanism to monitor, and evaluate the provision of the rewards and benefits to the teachers who are the backbone of educational sector.
AIYZA JAVAID
Lahore