This was said by Bahawalpur District Coordination Officer, Dr Ehtisham Anwer Mahar, on Friday. He was speaking at a joint meeting of government officers and representatives of various business organisations.
“Teachers were the integral part of society, therefore, it was decided to confer the VIP status on schoolteachers, he said. He added the district government had taken practical steps to provide VIP status to teachers. He added in the first phase 3639 teachers both male and female are being awarded VIP cards because they played constructive and effective role in securing extraordinary achievements in examination results, enhancing the pace of enrolment of students and having a decent record of attendance at their schools.
The DCO said several businesses and service providers had entered into partnership with the district administration, adding the holders of VIP special cards (teachers) are entitled to get 10% to 40% discount at various outlets, including pharmacies, diagnostic laboratories, hotels, hospitals, doctor appointments, restaurants, bakeries, transportation and different business centres.
The transport companies will offer them special seats while doctors and other such service providers will attend to them without any prior appointment, he said, adding the government offices will arrange one-window facility where teachers will not have to wait in queues.
Throughout the province, 150,000 teachers have been recruited and 70,000 more teachers will be appointed, he said. He added appointments of teachers in the province have been done on merit and the provincial education department’s budget has been increased by 36%.
All representatives of business community who are engaged in this noble cause would extend their constructive and tangible cooperation to fully implement this endeavour both at district and tehsil level, he said.
“This programme of awarding special VIP status to the teachers is the first initiative in the country by district administration Bahawalpur,” he pointed out.
At the meeting, stickers and association certificates carrying the messages, ‘We respect our teachers,’ were also distributed among the partners of this programme.
Regional Transport Authority Secretary Tanveer Jhandeer, Traders Community President Hafiz Muhammad Younis, System Network Incharge Professor Dr Arshad Gardezi, EDO Education Chaudhry Bashir Ahmad, District Health officer Dr Saeed Asghar, representatives of various business corporations and officials of various departments attended the meeting.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2016.
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