Daily wage school employees want govt to keep its promises

Announce series of protests from Feb 15 but are undecided about boycott of classes

ISLAMABAD/ RAWALPINDI: The contractual and daily wage employees at government-run schools in the federal capital have announced they will launch a series of protests from February 15 over the government’s failure to regularise them.

The first protest of the series will be held outside the National Press Club in Islamabad. However, the staffers have yet to make a decision on whether they will boycott classes or not.

Ahsan Bangash, an official of the Young Teachers Association (YTA), said that they will decide on future protest after their demonstration on Friday.

As per a statement released by the association on Sunday, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood had promised to withdraw an appeal filed by the government before the Supreme Court against a decision of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to regularise daily wage and contractual employees working in schools of the federal capital. However, the minister had failed to keep his promise.

Bangash said that the government could easily withdraw the petition as the case had yet to be heard by the apex court. Moreover, the SC has yet to suspend the verdict issued by the IHC — hence the verdict was in vogue and applicable.



They added that the Education Ministry had implemented a similar order issued by a single member bench to regularise non-teaching staff of lower grades but was dragging its feet when it came to teachers.

The officials claimed that other ministries have regularised their daily-wage employees but the education ministry appeared reluctant.

The regularized employees stated that daily-wage staffers are performing their duties with the same honesty and dedication as permanent staffers. However, they are severely mistreated by the government.

“The daily-wagers were being paid salary which is equivalent to the pay of labourers, and the small amount they were supposed to be given is paid after a long delay,” they complained.

They further complained that daily-wagers and non-teaching staff are not granted any leaves even in the event of an emergency. If they took a day off, their salaries are deducted.

Having reached the end of their patience, daily-wage employees claimed that Finance Minister Asad Umar and some other key members of the government were not fulfilling the promises they had made prior to their election.

They demanded that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Inasf (PTI) government fulfil their electoral promises.

Education for prisoners

In a bid to improve their literacy rate and to rehabilitate them, the government has decided to establish education centres for prisoners in jails across Punjab.

The plan has been put forward by the Punjab Education Minister Raja Rashid Hafeez, during a meeting with Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar. The governor has assured the minister of full support.

Further, Hafeez has stated that his ministry was devising a comprehensive strategy to spread education across the province.

Upgraded syllabus

The Punjab government has recently decided to upgrade its school books.

According to the new scheme, changes will be introduced in Islamiat, social science and Urdu books for grades one through ten.

The upgraded books will enlighten students about topics such as the war of 1965, sacrifices rendered by the army against terrorism, the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), awareness against drug use and historic battles of Muslims.

Further, to make the dispensation of education more efficient, the Punjab government hopes to merge as many as 10,000 schools with the nearest, larger school.

Furthermore, the teachers in basic pay scale (BPS) grade 14 and BPS-17 will be chosen as senior teachers, headmasters and headmistresses in primary and middle schools, respectively.

The new education structure is set to come into effect step-wise from March 1.

One Teacher-One Classroom  

The Teachers' Association in Punjab has decided to launch the “One Teacher-One Classroom” movement across the province to ensure a better quality of education. The movement will seek to implement a policy of a single teacher per class from the first grade to the fifth grade.



The move was announced after the teacher associations turned down a streamlining policy announced by the provincial government and termed it destructive for the education system.

Shafiq Bhalwaliya and Zafar Mehmood, who are spearheading the movement, told Daily Express that if this policy is implemented, it would reduce the number of teachers required in primary schools to just three.

Admissions for the first grade at the Federal Government Cantonment Garrison schools have begun. Only children of families living in any of the 45 cantonment boards across the country will be admitted in these schools.

The enrollment age range is set to be from five years to 10-years old. Applicants have been directed to bring along their No-objection Certificates NOCs to prove their residency in cantonment areas.

This requirement has created difficulties for families who live in rented premises in areas adjoining the cantonment boards.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2019.