Anger over inaction: Teachers group demands upgradation

Say only teachers in city have not been promoted for last two years

PESHAWAR: The All Primary Teachers Association (APTA) has urged K-P Elementary and Secondary Education department to constitute district promotion committees (DPC) to promote teachers and fill the vacancies in over 105 primary schools that are functioning without a head teacher.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, APTA Provincial President Malik Khalid Khan said government announced upgradation in 2012, due to which schoolteachers were promoted according to their experience.

However, over the past two years, not a single DPC was called to promote teachers according to their experience and seniority in Peshawar.

“Every other district education officer has constituted DPC annually,” he said. “Meanwhile in Peshawar, not a single DPC has been constituted by the DEO.”

According to Malik Khalid, this has affected hundreds of teachers. “A large number of teachers have been deprived of their rights and will retire without getting a promotion,” he added.

Malik Khalid said every year, the concerned DEO asks schools to submit a list with names of teachers. “The DEO and DPC then promote teachers according to their service and experience with the school,” he said. “However, the previous Peshawar DEO Sharif Gul did not constitute a DPC.”

When contacted, Gul said he was the first DEO to promote 2,500 primary schoolteachers during the first year of the policy. “Since I have been transferred, I can no longer comment on the issue,” Gul said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2015.