No end in sight as teachers’ strike enters 25th day

The teachers, who passed the Sukkur IBA test, are demanding that they be regularised

KARACHI: As the hunger strike being staged by the headteachers, who were hired on contract after passing the Sukkur IBA test, entered the 25th day, the protesters are still waiting for the provincial government to heed their demands.

The protesters, many of whom were beaten and temporarily detained by police around a month ago, have now announced that they will march towards Chief Minister’s House and stage a sit-in there on October 15 if their demands are not met.

The teachers, including women, have been protesting the Sindh government’s apathy in regularising their appointments. The protesters claim that the provincial government wants to appoint its favourites in their stead.

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The teachers said that a test was conducted by the Government of Sindh through IBA Sukkur in 2015 for the posts of headmasters and headmistresses. Subsequently, a committee was formed by the chief secretary, which conducted interviews. Their degrees and credentials were verified by the Higher Education Commission, while they also underwent a 14-day training course through SZABIST the provincial Institute of Teachers Education. Appointment letters were issued to 957 candidates who cleared all the tests on a contractual basis and the entire process of appointing the candidates was conducted on the orders of the Sindh Chief Minister.

Head Mistress Faiza Fatima, who was present in the hunger-strike camp outside the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, said that they have only one demand and that is to resolve the issue of regularisation through legislation in the Sindh Assembly in compliance with the notification issued by the chief minister in April 2019. “The committee formed for the resolution of headmasters’ fair demands is delaying the process,” she said. It has been 10 days since the announcement for the formation of the committee but neither has been any written letter nor did any member of the committee visit the camp.

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“We are sorry to say that when we visited Murtaza Wahab, who is also a member of the committee, he didn’t meet us and conveyed a message via an office assistant that the committee’s terms of reference haven’t been defined yet.

Gazetted Officers Association’s central general secretary Zainul Abideen Leghari said that the highly qualified gazetted teachers are protesting for three weeks, but the non-serious attitude by the government of Sindh could only be called its insensitivity. He said that a sit-in will be staged on October 15 outside the CM House if the issue of regularisation is not taken seriously.

The Government Teachers Association and Primary Teachers Association have also endorsed the announcement for the sit-in on October 15.

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