Schoolteachers to protest against privatisation

Say they will demonstrate outside press clubs of all districts on August 24

LAHORE: Various groups of schoolteachers in the province have once again vowed to take to the streets to protest against the government for action against school heads and failing to halt the privatisation of educational institutions.

Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU), in its core committee meeting, discussed problems being faced by the teachers’ community and the commitments made by the School Education Department (SED) in a meeting organised on April 18 and May 15.



Leaders of the PTU, including Central President Chaudhry Muhammad Sarfaraz, General Secretary Rana Liaquat Ali, Rana Anwar, Rana Altaf and others, alleged the government was intimidating senior primary schoolteachers who were approaching retirement,.

“In-service promotion and pay increase for teachers have also been partially implemented, while the same is pending in several districts of the province,” the teachers added.



Members of the union further said 10,000 schools were being ‘privatised’ under the garb of outsourcing. On the other hand, public schools in the province only received partial funds from the non-salary budget (NSB) and school management committee (SMC) for the year 2016-17.

PTU members said the teachers were forced to take to the streets for their demands. They announced that if the government did not upgrade teachers’ scale by August 15, as per promises made to them, the community would hold protests outside press clubs in every district of the province on August 24.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2017.