Thousands of Afternoon School Teachers Unpaid for Six Months

Thousands of teachers working in afternoon schools across Punjab have not received their salaries for the past six months.

Sources confirmed that payments have been pending from December to May, leaving more than 10,000 teachers without income. In Lahore alone, there are 108 afternoon schools where staff members are facing this issue.

Teachers have demanded that the government immediately release their overdue salaries. They also pointed out that, under normal policy, they are not paid for the three-month summer break. However, due to what they describe as the negligence of the education authorities, even the six months of salary owed before the summer vacation have not been cleared.

This salary crisis comes at a time when Punjab’s teaching community is already under pressure on multiple fronts. Recently, the Punjab Teachers Joint Action Committee strongly opposed the government’s move to outsource more than 13,000 public schools to NGOs under the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Punjab Education Initiatives Management Authority (PEIMA).

At the same time, the Higher Education Department has also launched a crackdown against college and university teachers accused of holding positions in political and religious parties — a practice banned under government service rules.