PTU rejects 70,000 contractual teachers

Educators denounce experimentation in education sector

RAWALPINDI:

The Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) has rejected the recruitment of 70,000 daily-wage teachers in public schools across the province, a spokesperson shared on Wednesday.

PTU officials, including Rana Liaquat Ali, Wasim Iqbal, Shafique Bhalwalia and Basharat Iqbal Raja lamented that the decision would lead to the destruction of the education sector and result in the demoralisation of permanent teachers across the country.

The officials termed the move a conspiracy against government teachers, not realising the damage it will cause public schools due to varying experience and qualification levels. The union also shared concern over the performance of certain educators recruited on contractual basis.

They contended that it would be difficult to gauge the performance of these regular educators in public schools in comparison with the daily-wage teachers as there is a vast difference in their training. They added that the situation could lead to disputes between the regular and contractual teachers.

The union officials further expressed that such experiments have been carried out in the education department for the past seven decades and their results are available for everyone to evaluate. Each new administration enforces a new system as if the education sector is an experimental laboratory without any real consequences that affect real people, they lamented.

They called on the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to save the province’s children from being deprived of their basic right to education by saving the sector from further experimentation. The officials stated that the issue of a lack of educators present in public schools should be resolved for good.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2021.