Sindh’s contract teachers met with baton charge yet again

Teachers demanding permanent status attempt to march towards CM House

KARACHI: Scores of government school teachers marched towards the Chief Minister House on Monday after their protest outside Karachi Press Club the same morning appeared futile. The teachers, marching under a one-point charter of demand for the regularisation of their contracts, attempted to enter the red zone. They were met by baton charge with the police. Several of the teachers leading the protest as well as others were arrested by the police.

After the police action, the teachers staged a sit-in outside the office of the South DIG. Negotiations with the protestors eventually began, however, during the negotiation process, the police resorted to baton charge again. Several more teachers were arrested and the police then unleashed water cannons to disperse the demonstrators.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Primary Teachers Association General-Secretary Sikandar Jatoi said that the teachers approached the South DIG's office to stage a sit-in after seeing their leaders arrested by the police. He recounted that during the negotiations between the teachers and the police, 20 of the arrested teachers were released. The situation worsened again though, he said, as the teachers leading the protest were not released by the police. The protesters were met by an even stronger baton charge then and several more arrests, he added.

Sindh govt accepts nine demands of protesting teachers

The protesting teachers had suffered a similar fate on September 16 while protesting for the same demand - job security. Infuriated by no measures taken by the provincial government in this regard and the continued police action against them, they took to the Karachi Press Club on Monday morning and staged a sit-in. Junior school teachers, primary school teachers and senior secondary school teachers from all across Sindh participated in the protest in large numbers. They reiterated their complaint that they had been hired on a contract basis on pure merit without any recommendation in 2010 but have not been made permanent as yet. According to Jatoi, the Sindh government recruited 18,000 teachers on contract after a test held by the National Testing Service in 2010. The protesting teachers were hired on merit, he said, adding that the Sindh Assembly has thrice approved the bill to grant them permanent job status but negative lobbying from the bureaucracy has been preventing the release of the notification in this regard. If the notification in question is not released, the scope of the protest will be further expanded to the whole of the province at the taluka level, warned Jatoi.

Traffic remained disrupted at Fawwara Chowk due to the demonstration and police action.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2019.