Teachers plan rally for regularisation

Amendment in law needed to resolve issue without PPSC exam

LAHORE:

School and college teachers from across the province are all set to hold a rally and sit-in against the Punjab government on Wednesday for not fulfilling their demands regarding regularisation of service and other issues.

Punjab Employees Services Protection Association (PESPA) is organising the protest in which at least eight unions and groups of teachers are jointly protesting.

Chief Organiser PESPA Rana Liaqat Ali said on Tuesday that around 11,000 government school teachers were suffering because Punjab government had failed to resolve the issue of their regularisation during the past 18 months.

Around 5,000 women are among the teachers awaiting regularisation. Ali said secondary school teachers of science, art and computer, as well as assistant education officers had not been regularised.

Many of them were recruited in 2014.

Sources said a large number of teachers had reached Lahore to participate in the sit-in in front of the Civil Secretariat.

"How can a teacher focus on teaching when he is not sure about his status and job and it is a fact that besides the teachers, students of the schools are also suffering," said a school headmaster who had arrived to participate in the protest.

"Punjab government is not serious to solve the basic issue of school teachers. They have been making promises with us for 18 months. These teachers were appointed after giving NTS test and interviews and now for their regularisation the government is demanding that they appear in Punjab Public Service Commission exams, which is not acceptable for the teaching community. We demand immediate regularisation of the 11,000 teachers. Issues related to our pay, service protection and promtion are also pending," said the chief organiser PESPA.

A senior officer of Punjab School Education Department said amendment to the Regularisation Act 2018 was required to regularise the services of the teachers. "The matter had to be discussed by the Standing Committee on Law of Punjab Assembly but it has not held a meeting during the past two months."

Punjab School Education Minister Sardar Murad Raas said in a tweet that the school education department had forwarded a summary to resolve the issue, which was now with the cabinet sub committee on legislation.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2020.