Privatisation: Teachers’ Union calls for protest rally

LAHORE:

Educators affiliated with the Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU) have decided to stage a protest demonstration and a sit-in in front of the Provincial Assembly (PA) building on May 14.

The PTU gave the protest call in connection with the “privatisation” of public schools. The PTU claimed that the provincial government was unfavourably disposed towards public education. The PTU said it would stage a sit-in before the PA.

The union said it had been protesting against the government for a year. It said the government had failed to honour its pledges despite repeated assurances. The PTU said the government had vowed to revise teachers’ basic pay scales but nothing had been done in this regard to date. The union said the policies of the Literacy and Numeracy Drive (LND) and the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) had compelled teachers to take to the streets. The PTU said the government was now “privatising” public schools.

The union said the School Education Department (SED) secretary had assured them that no action would be taken against teachers from schools that under performed in LND tests. However, the PTU said, the pledge had not been honoured and the government continued to take punitive action against teachers.

The union said that schools that had performed well had been handed over to the PEF. The PTU said the government had been deliberately trying to obliterate the network of public school network province-wide.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2016.