Hunger strike: 200,000 teachers protest for 13,500 posts

Candidate sat the recruitment test in 2009.

HYDERABAD:

Nearly 200,000 junior and primary school teachers from Matiari district went on hunger strike on Monday for 13,500 vacancies.

The teachers, who qualified for recruitment after the 2009 test, demanded job offers. The test was held in May 2009 and the results were announced in September that year but the teachers have yet to receive their letters.

“We are 36 such candidates from Matiari who qualified but were never given offers,” a protesting teacher told The Express Tribune.

One of the candidates, Mustafa Kamal Jamali, said that they had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, which gave orders to the District Recruitment Committee (DRC) of Matiari to fix the problem on the basis of merit.

“The DRC met in December 2010 and collected our documents,” he said. No progress has been made.

Matiari’s Education EDO Muhammad Ramzan Parihar told The Express Tribune that the posts were given under a World Bank project for a contract of two years.

In compliance with the court orders, they moved an application to the education secretary for consideration. “The matter now lies with the secretary,” he added.

Parihar recalled that a similar situation occurred in Nawabshah. “The court gave a similar order but the education authorities took the matter to the Supreme Court.”

He said that the final decision may be made in the light of the apex court’s verdict.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2011.