The college teachers who are on duty during summer vacation and teaching BS and Associate Degree Program (ADP) classes are demanding 48 days of earned leave in the pattern of other civil servants.
Senior vice president of the Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA), Professor Farhan Azam, identified that the educational institutions are called vacation departments.
“The earned leave of the employees of the vacation department is calculated at the rate of one day for every calendar month of duty rendered. It means employees/teachers earn only 10 days’ leave on full average pay if they avail vacations,” he said.
However, if the employees are prevented from availing of vacations any year, they are entitled to 48 days of earned leaves like other government servants of the non-vacation department.
“Therefore, the Federal Directorate of Education should issue the orders to give compensatory leave to the teachers who are on duty during summer vacation,” he added.
Vice president of FGCTA, Professor Tasneem Akhter Mir, had a similar understanding of the matter. She said that during the summer vacation, teachers spend time with family and friends, or just relax with days off. But if they are called on duty like business as usual, then they should be treated like other civil servants, and be compensated for the number of days they perform their duty.
She noted that there were almost no vacations last year. Only two-week vacations were announced instead of two months and teachers were engaged in academic activities either in physical teaching or online teaching.
The professor believed that they were entitled to 48 days of earned leaves but no orders of earned leaves were issued so far.
FGCTA President, Dr. Rahima Rahman said, “Family life is at the center of our culture, and the shared time is highly valued but teachers sacrifice their family time in teaching the classes. If a teacher sacrifices his/her time, he/she should be compensated.”
She urged the authorities at FDE to issue the notification of earned leave of the previous year, and compensate the teachers who are teaching ADP and BS classes during the current summer vacation.
