Teachers ‘assured transfer of schools temporarily halted’

Union says govt to take up their recommendation in the upcoming meeting

LAHORE: The process of transfer of 13 middle and high schools to the Daanish School System has been put on a halt, a delegation of teachers’ union was told by Schools Education Special Secretary Imran Sikandar Baloch at a recent meeting.

This was revealed in a statement issued on Friday by The Grand Teachers’ Alliance (GTA), an umbrella organisation including several factions of the Punjab Teachers’ Union.

The statement said that the government was reviewing its decision to convert the 13 schools.

A final decision in this regard would be reached soon, it added.

It said that the delegation was assured that work was also underway on their demand regarding an upgrade of pay scales.

The delegation was told that the process would be completed in a couple of months, it added.

The statement said that the delegation’s recommendations would be presented in the upcoming departmental meeting on July 10. It said the special secretary had assured the delegation that the meeting would try to come up with workable solutions to the concerns raised by the delegation.

Other issues discussed between the delegation and the School Education special secretary were the establishment of district education authorities, delays in in-service promotion of teachers, regularisation of contract teachers, ban on transfers and lack of communication between government and teachers, the statement said.

It said that during the meeting with the special secretary the delegation also expressed concerns over a proposal to hand over more primary schools in the province to the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF).

The statements said that the GTA would devise its future course of action in view of the outcome of the SED meeting on July 10.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2016.