Police don’t spare the rod with Sindh’s teachers

15,000 NTS-qualified teachers protest outside Sindh Assembly for salaries, permanent employment


Our Correspondent December 20, 2017
The teachers say their colleagues in the rest of Sindh are still being paid salaries. PHOTO: INP

KARACHI: [fbvideo link=" https://www.facebook.com/etribunevideo/videos/1629644700429478/"][/fbvideo]

Resorting to their tried and tested method of dispersing ‘unruly’ protesters, the police baton charged and used water cannons against 1,500 teachers in Karachi on Wednesday for demanding salaries and permanent employment.

The teachers, all of whom had cleared the National Testing Service (NTS) examination, were appointed on merit as primary, secondary and high school teachers for a three-year tenure. As per their appointment orders, the contract of these teachers, which ended last month, was renewable but the government suddenly stopped their salaries and refused to give them permanent orders.

In the rest of Sindh, however, NTS-qualified teachers are still drawing their monthly salaries even though their contract has ended.

“This discrimination has compelled Karachi-based teachers to come out on the roads,” lamented a female teacher.

The teachers, most of whom were women, marched from MA Jinnah Road towards the Sindh Assembly and were intercepted by a large number of policemen near the Sindh Secretariat where they were beaten up. After the tussle, around 200 teachers were also taken into custody. Later, the arrested teachers were released on the directives of the education minister, who ordered the renewal of their six-month contract and issuance of permanent orders after proper evaluation.



“A total of 15,000 teachers were inducted purely on merit in 2014 in Sindh, of which only 1,500 belong to Karachi.  Instead of renewing the orders, the education department stopped the salaries of 700 teachers in Karachi,” said Mohammad Aslam, a junior school teacher who was among those leading the protest. “Everyone from the chief minister to the education minister are lauding the performance of NTS teachers but no one heeds us when we demand our rights,” he said, adding that except Karachi, teachers working in other districts of Sindh draw their salaries on time.

Officials in the education department said 80% of the 1,500 protesting teachers in Karachi are female, most of whom were beaten up by policemen and dragged into the police mobiles. Zahida Parveen holds a master’s in sociology from Karachi University and is an NTS-qualified high school teacher. “In the three-year contract, the first year was our probationary period. Everyone was happy with our performance,” she explained. “Many of them secured competitive awards distributed by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. We were told we would be given permanent orders, but now they have stopped our salaries,” she lamented, adding that junior school teachers posted in Karachi get Rs25,000 salary while teachers of the same cadre in the rest of Sindh get Rs28,000. “After getting permanent orders, the government will also give us teaching and other allowances, which are now denied to us,” she explained.

Around 200 teachers were taken into custody during the protest. PHOTO: ONLINE Around 200 teachers were taken into custody during the protest. PHOTO: ONLINE

Another teacher who teaches at a primary school in Korangi challenged the government to have its permanent teacher compete with them. “Thousands of ghost teachers who even can’t write or read a single sentence get a monthly salary and allowance, but the education department is denying it to us,” he said. “In employment orders, two different employment codes are allotted to NTS teachers in Karachi and other districts. The teachers inducted in Karachi are given a 0039 code, which is temporary employment for a specific period, and our colleagues who also passed the NTS test and are working outside Karachi are given 0001 code, which is allotted to permanent employees,” he explained, adding that contractual teachers appointed through the Institute of Business Administration test have already been given permanent orders, so the government must follow through on it.

K-P regularises services of 40,000 schoolteachers

Opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly condemned the incident and vowed to take up the issue in the upcoming assembly session. “For the first time teachers were appointed on merit but unfortunately, the government has treated them badly,” said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman, adding that he will move a motion in the assembly on the issue.

Despite their violent clash with the police, many teachers refused to budge, and it was only until the South deputy commissioner arrived at the scene with assurances to resolve their issues that the teachers finally dispersed. The DC told the protesting teachers that a summary for their permanent appointments had been forwarded to the CM. “I have spoken to the higher authorities in the Sindh government. The summary has been moved to the chief minister and all 15,000 NTS-qualified teachers will be issued permanent orders,” he said.

Education Minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar, however, has ordered the education secretary to extend the protesting teachers’ tenure by six months and only permanently appoint those teachers who can pass the evaluations.

This was the police’s second clash with teachers in a single month and its third with protesters. Law enforcers recently thrashed protesting teachers who were appointed during the last Pakistan Peoples Party tenure and whose appointments are now being termed fake. Last Sunday, the police used water cannons, batons and teargas against protesting sugar cane farmers who wanted to hold a demonstration outside Bilawal House in Clifton.

COMMENTS (2)

thoughts | 6 years ago | Reply Notice difference in treatment of protesters! Islamabad protest vs teachers! LOL!
waseem | 6 years ago | Reply No respect of teachers in Pakistan. How one can expect development in leadership of such leaders?
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