Schoolteachers vow to stage sit-in on Sept 16

Union leadership says a large number of teachers are unhappy with situation

LAHORE: Irked by a sea of changes in service incentive package, the Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU) has vowed to take up the issue on September 16 by staging a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the PTU said the up-gradation policy of the Punjab government would impede promotions.

Through this policy the in-service teachers would retire in the same pay scale they were currently working on. “The current policy will result in teachers’ retirement in the same grade they are working today and a current public schoolteacher will not get a promotion,” the statement read.

PTU leaders, including Central President Chaudhry Muhammad Sarfaraz, General Secretary Rana Liaquat Ali, Rana Anwar, Rana Altaf and others said after the scale up-gradation, teachers should have been happy but they were concerned instead.

“We believe that this has been done on purpose and is a conspiracy against the community of public schoolteachers,” the statement said.

The leadership of the PTU alleged that the whole scale up-gradation process was changed as part of a ‘conspiracy’ against the public school system of the province. They said that a large number of teachers were unhappy with the situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2017.