Teachers union seeks ban on transfer of schools to PEF

Says govt has yet to implement demands met during last month’s negotiations with union’s other faction

LAHORE: School teachers affiliated with a faction of the Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU) continued their protest against what they said was privatisation of public schools on the third consecutive day at Charing Cross on The Mall on Sunday.

The protesters were led by Allah Baksh Qaiser, Ghulam Mustafa and Arshad Gul. They staged a sit-in on the road creating problems for vehicular traffic. The city traffic police diverted traffic to adjacent roads to avoid a jam. A CTP spokesperson said 13 diversions were put up on the road to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

The protesters said they had gathered from various cities of the province in support of three demands: an end to hand over of public schools to the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and other NGOs; end of harassment of teachers by the district education authorities; and upgrade of teachers’ pay scales. They said they wanted to a complete ban on transferring of schools to the PEF. They said they had taken to the streets also because the government had yet to implement demands it agreed to during negotiations with another PTU faction last month.

They said they would not move till their demands were met. They urged the provincial government to cancel its decision to handover public schools to the PEF and other NGOs. They said that the government had handed over several primary schools to the PEF and middle and secondary schools to the Daanish School System. They said the government was destroying the public school system.

Regarding the DEAs, they said the authorities were penalising public school teachers by shifting all responsibility for schools’ condition on the shoulders of teachers.

The protesters said the provincial government scale had last year assured the teachers to upgrade their pay scales. They said the government had yet to fulfill its commitment.

On Sunday, no government official had contacted the protesters for negotiations. Schools Education Minister Rana Mashhood was not available for comments. Another PTU faction had staged a protest on The Mall last month that ended after successful negotiations with Schools Education Minister Rana Mashhood. The minister had assured the protesting teachers led by Syed Sajjad Akbar Kazmi and Rana Liaquat that no schools would be privatized and teachers removed from their posts. The government had also agreed to review process of transferring schools to the PEF.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2016.