Perseverance, Persistence & Plight — the Pakistani Teacher

In one of the relatively old areas of Karachi, North Nazimabad, Block F, where the middle and upper class families reside, the daily hustling and ever so busy people experience traffic at a particular road where more and more schools are established. Some well-known, and some not so much. Among all of the schools there is one particular school whose kindergarten and nursery branch exists hidden behind the shade of trees, sometimes overlooked as one passes by, and that school is the Little Folks School.
As you go inside it’s a pleasant area where you see a maintained garden and cage with peacocks, the sound of children reciting poems, the alphabet and the occasional laughter fills your ears. I went to that school with the intention of finding out about the lives of the teachers who worked there. A lower strata school with low salary, what are the challenges they face, how is it like working there? How is the environment catering to them? Or is it their genuine love for the profession motivating them to work here?
My school life ended for quite some time now but I still remember every detail as clear as day. I remember how my facial expression would change from that of a wounded dog to a happy child as soon as I saw my teachers whose faces would radiate happiness and whose smiles would give me the courage to get through the day. They’d smile ear to ear whether it was 8 in the morning or
12 in the afternoon. I always thought that my teachers were super women and knew no worries. Little did I know, I would one day find out how truly and utterly wrong I was. As a daughter of the principal to this very school, my mother one day uncovered all the maladies that these teachers veil behind their faces every day.
I was always aware of what little fee our school demanded from the children but what I was unaware of was how extremely underpaid these teachers are. 15,000 per month is not even the bare minimum. It’s the amount of pocket money elite children get in a month or even less. The sheer amount of effort that is put in by these teachers and the amount that they are paid are on
two ends of a line. When these teachers were asked how they make ends meet with such a meagre income, they replied with “Our salary runs out within 15 days, even when living like misers.” “We succumb to asking loans from either friends or family.” Says a senior teacher who has been teaching for more than 20 years. By asking for money from them every single month, these teachers are drowning in huge piles of debt that they are trying to pay off with what little savings they have. “Even buying clothes every alternate month has become a luxury now, 80 percent of our income is spent on buying groceries.” Says one of the comparatively newer teachers, whose income is less than Rs. 15,000. I assumed that this would be the problem of the teachers who’ve just started working but I was once again proven to be wrong. The senior most
teachers have also been facing this problem, teachers who have taught me and my eldest sister both. Their salaries have progressed into a measly 21 thousand after decades of teaching.
After a long day of listening to parents complain about how badly the school is being run and children just being children, these teachers come home only to find the house in the worst possible condition. This problem mainly arises amongst teachers who live in joint families. And to quote one of the senior most teachers who works a 9–5 job and tutors children after coming
home from school, “Even if I come home at 8 PM, I will still find dirty dishes in the sink because everyone else refuses to clean them.” I inquired about why they don’t empathise with you and her reply was, “Because they think my work is only a hobby, it’s something I do in my leisure time and to run away from real responsibilities at home.” After coming home from a long hectic
day, these teachers do not get a break when they come home. Home — a place meant to relax and unwind. These teachers go straight into the kitchen to cook a 3 course meal for their family and then to clean up the mess she made while preparing their meal.
The life of a Pakistani teacher is difficult enough as it is, the life of an unmarried Pakistani teacher is an utter nightmare. Married teachers get more benefits as compared to them because the boss assumes unmarried teachers have all the time in the world. An example of this would be: teachers with children don’t often have to stay during late sittings because the boss knows
that she is needed at home to cater to the needs of her husband and children whereas the unmarried teacher has to take place of that teacher during late sittings because the boss assumes she has no responsibilities at home.
These unmarried teachers are often ridiculed by their relatives about “asserting their independence” by working all day and coming back at night which is highly inappropriate for a woman in this society to do so, even though she is sometimes the sole bread-winner of the
family.
These teachers have to work with the same dedication they put into their work as well as their homes. When their salaries run out and they can’t provide for their families, they offer home tuitions to children as if teaching a classroom full of students for 6 hours wasn’t enough. The teacher truly never stops being a teacher, life just does not give her a break. No matter how much effort the teacher puts into moulding the kid to become the best version of
themselves, some parents are simply never satisfied with anything. They yell at the teachers, belittle them and humiliate them but the teacher cannot fight back as per the boss’s rules. She simply bows her head down out of respect or nods at their meaningless debates.
When it comes to dealing with finicky parents, there are two extremes: One of them being extremely problematic towards the “body language” of the teachers. They have actively complained about the teachers “smiling” too much insinuating that she is making a move at the fathers and even then, the teachers are advised to stay silent in the matter and to apologise for her
non-existent mistake. Teachers have reportedly complained to their boss over having been hit on by some of the fathers that come to the school, “Their venomous eyes gaze upon the bodies of these teachers like x-
rays.” Says one of the younger teachers who has just started working 3 months ago. And barely any action gets taken against these vultures. Yet, the teacher has to compromise her dignity.
There is a teacher who comes to school in old worn out clothes but always has the biggest smile on her face, why you may ask. The reason being is that she was ordered by her boss to always keep a smile on her face because her previous distraught look made the children dislike her which led to a lot of complaints from parents. Her husband has been fighting with liver cancer
for years now. Her income barely gets him the treatment he needs and has no choice but to succumb to asking for financial help from family and friends. And living in a joint family is certainly no picnic for her. She gets to hear sentences like, “Oh she can pay for her clothes but
can’t pay the electricity bill” from family. And to make matters worse,her youngest son was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) when he was 3 years old. She can’t give him the attention she needs because of her sick husband and her hectic job. But what does she do? She covers her pain with a smile on her face every single day.
After a truck-load of gut wrenching stories, I made my way towards one of my favourite teachers who always had the best sense of humour and was always the most loving and dedicated towards her students. She was a single mother of three kids, lived in a two bedroom house along with her mother and her monthly income at that time was 7000 rupees. With that she had to pay the rent, feed her family and pay for their education while her ex-husband paid no heed for his children.
She recalls oftentimes going to bed with an empty stomach, sending her kids to school without lunches or lunch money. Instead of eating three times a day like an average person, they would eat only once during the day. When she tried asking her family for help they were very quick to dismiss her and instead called her a “do (2) number aurat” for divorcing her husband. Her
neighbours would at times pity her and send over leftovers from previous nights for her and the kids. After teaching for over 17 years now, her salary has increased up to 21 thousand which is not even enough to cover the electricity bill. She spent so much time at school and then coming
home just to tutor more kids to earn a few more bucks that her children felt completely neglected and unloved. They faced a lot of psychological problems because of all the questions that were raised by their school-mates about the absence of their father and their mother who works like a
dog to make ends meet. But what does a teacher do? She has to act like nothing is bothering her.
“My salary finishes within 6 days. After nearly 30 years of working — first 20 years as a teacher, and now the principal of the same school, my salary has reached sixty thousand. And I have to give 50% of it to my house help and groceries, leaving myself with barely any savings by the end
of the month.” Says Suhema Tariq, the principal of Little Folks School.
“There have been times when I asked for financial aid from relatives as I had three daughters, and three school fees to pay. It was humiliating but I had no other option.” She says, “Things have improved to a great extent but being a principal is not at all easy. I have to deal with fussy parents all the time who show no respect to me or my teachers. I can’t even retaliate by showing
any sort of anger or frustration towards them as it would get me fired.”
Principal Suhema has to deal with the petty problems of teachers over academic discourses, personal fights, and whatnot. She also counsels depressed teachers who can’t afford therapy.
“The school feels less like a school, and more like a psychiatric clinic because of all the mental health issues the teachers have.” Says Principal Suhema.
“During my teaching days, back in the early 2000s, I do admit that I’ve neglected my own children and their education because I was too busy teaching other children while juggling my career and my bed-ridden parents at the same time.” Her parents were both extremely sick; her
mother had stage 3 breast cancer and later she was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Her father had a motor neuron disease and required round the clock care.
“I had to dress up 3 kids for school, work like a dog at school, visit my sick parents after school, go to my own home, tutor my own kids till 12 AM, and then I’d get some rest.” She says.

“When my parents got ill, I would spend all day in the hospital, my children’s life and education was disturbed as was my marriage. My children barely got to see me but I could not complain. I had to tackle work, my kids, my husband, my sick parents all at once but still had to put up a smile on my face at work because parents and the faculty would complain about my sullen facial expressions.” She adds further.
I’ve studied with these teachers for 13 years and I’ve had my share of issues with them about trivial matters over the years, but one thing is for certain; I’ve found a new respect for them after sitting down and having a real conversation with them. I don’t care what rubbish they show in
movies about superheroes saving the world in their red capes. To me, these teachers are the real superwomen, their strength and perseverance knows no bounds.