Delayed promotions: K-P college teachers start week-long strike from today

Demand one-step promotions, post teachers in their home districts

HARIPUR: College teachers across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will go on a week-long token strike from today (Monday) to protest against the delays in one-step promotions and for being posted outside of their home districts, read an announcement from the Pakhtunkhwa College Teachers Association (PACTA)

The teachers would also not register their daily biometric attendance until their demands were met.

“Since a large number of college teachers were posted out of their home districts, forcing a teacher to reach the college at 8am sharp from other districts every day was unjust,” said PACTA Secretary Khan Dil Badshah, after a meeting of the association on Sunday.

“A teacher coming from other district cannot reach the college on time and subsequently has to face disciplinary action owing to the wrong policies of the higher education department,”
he added.

During the PACTA meeting at the Government Post Graduate College for Women in Haripur, Badshah pointed out that teachers had already stopped marking their attendance since October 28, in line with a decision of the association.

The teachers would continue their boycott unless their demands were met.

Detailing their demands, Badshah said that until all college teachers were posted in their home districts and teaching hours defined for each, which should be four hours, the teachers across K-P would continue to boycott registering their biometric attendance.

He clarified that the token strike, which starts Monday, was purely for one-step promotion of teachers and that all teachers would wear black armbands until PACTA decides otherwise.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2016.