Contradicting narratives; As teachers protest, minister hands out more job orders

Teachers come out in Hyderabad to condemn treatment against them.

HYDERABAD:

In reaction to the heavy-handed action taken against protesting government college teachers in Karachi, college teachers across Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas boycotted all academic activities on Thursday.

Terming the protests by the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) unnecessary, education minister Nisar Khuhro said, “The Sindh government has increased the education budget to Rs132 billion and the largest part of the budget - Rs110 billion - is spent on teachers.” He was speaking at an event in which he awarded job offer letters to the newly appointed junior and high school teachers at Public School, Latifabad.



“These protests are harming the education process, every other day they take to the streets leaving the schools and colleges shut,” Khuhro said. He said the education officials have been asked to list teachers who remain absent from their duties and the ones who disrupt the academic process by forcing schools and colleges to shut down.

Meanwhile, as 1,098 teachers from Hyderabad were awarded the job orders. Earlier, 350 job orders of junior teachers were given out in Larkana followed by 750 junior and high school job orders in Mirpurkhas According to the minister, the government will fill some 12,000 of the 20,000 vacancies of the schoolteachers in the province.

Protests

Teachers from 263 colleges in Sindh had gathered in Karachi outside the Sindh Assembly to press the government to accept their demands. College teachers have demanded for enforcement of time-scale formula for their promotions, grant of certain allowance and filling the vacant posts of the teachers in the province.

“We will continue the boycott, unless the government removes the secretary education and accepts our demand,” warned SPLA Hyderabad region president Shahjahan Panhwar at the rally outside the press club. The SPLA claimed that some of the their protesting teachers were also arrested in Karachi.

Panhwar claimed that some 4,882 sanctioned posts are lying vacant in the province and consequently, the existing teachers’ workforce has been burdened with excessive workload. He also claimed that over a thousand college teachers await their promotions.

The SPLA’s Ghulam Nabi Rustamani said they decided to protest outside the assembly only when they felt that their rightful demands are being ignored. “Brutal suppression of our protests has only strengthened our resolve to continue our struggle,” he vowed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2014.