By Muhammad Amin Baloch
The profession of teaching is considered to be a noble one as it was the profession of prophets. A teacher is considered to be the builder of a nation in terms of directing students’ life spiritually, socially, economically and morally in a proper way. Islam has attached great importance to teaching and our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself was a Mualim (teacher). In the early days of Islam, teachers used to be a role model in the preaching of Islam. The Islamic characteristics of a good teacher are: (1) compliance with shariat (2) God fearing (3) high practical attitude, role model (4) ambassador and peace maker (5) as a revolutionist (6) preference of collective interests over his self.
In modern era, an ideal teacher demands the above mentioned features in any part of the world. Here we are only concerned with the teachers in Chitral. God has gifted Chitral with numerous such iconic teachers who have played and are playing a pivotal role in the dissemination of quality education in the nook and corner of chitral.Such teachers never care for money and dedicate themselves for the holistic spread of education. They always gained tremendous respects amongst the people and pupils as a whole. Their only mission is teaching and deemed themselves teachers for twenty four hours. A teacher is conceived to be an embodiment of the society and responsible to promote social, moral and spiritual values therein. He is the mirror in to which a student sees his image. Like other government servants teachers are also bound to certain state rules and regulations. According to the Civil Servant Act of 1973 and Government Servant Conduct Rules of 1987, a government servant is, inter alia, prohibited to affiliate with any funded NGOs .He is also not allowed to establish a side business without the prior permission of the head of the department. But in Chitral government servants especially teachers have bypassed this state writ and are linked with different NGOs besides establishing side business and nourishing strong political affiliations. These political affiliations are used as tools to apply pressure on state organs for various reasons. Education department has become silent spectator. Different political parties put pressure on education department not to take strong preventive actions against such teachers. The lethargic behavior of the department has made such teachers as entities above the law.
In Chitral private schools and colleges have mushroomed with the slogan of providing quality education to the students. It is a fact that these institutions are doing good job when compared with government institutions. As these are functioning within the state, therefore they should comply with government rules as applicable to their co-teachers in government department. Unfortunately private teachers are free from any restriction. At the same times they are affiliated with different funded NGOs, operate side businesses, having strong political linkages and even office bearers etc.Sometimes these teachers are maneuvering to establish their monopoly in the area .This policy vacuum leaves bad affect upon the teachers as reflections of ethical and social values. The district administration and education department should also consider for bringing these private institutions under government control, atleast to prevent anarchy. Otherwise they would become state within state.
As citizens of the Islamic Republic, the state has granted us both rights and responsibilities. Our rights demand us duties and compliance with the rule of law is our number one responsibility. By obeying rules of the state then we will become polite and civilized citizen. And a teacher definitely plays a critical rule in preparing his students in this direction, first he/she being the role model by complying the state rules. And this we can expect from a good teacher.]]>
