School principals demand regularisation

Protest outside KPC for second consecutive day

KARACHI:

The principals of government schools who had qualified for appointment on their posts after sitting a test by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Sukkur staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday for the second consecutive day.

Shouting slogans, they demanded regularisation and denounced the requirement to again sit an exam again to retain their jobs.

"We have not been regularized even after four years of passing the IBA test," said one of the protesters, terming the requirement to appear for a test while not being regularized "absolute injustice."

According to the protesters, the Sindh Public Service Commission getting an advertisement published to announce that they will have to sit the test again is a violation of court orders issued in connection with the matter.

"Around 5,000 positions of principals are lying vacant in Sindh's government schools, yet they have taken measures directed towards terminating us for no reason," complained a disgruntled protester.

The protesters dubbed the condition to give the test again an act of "discrimination" by the Sindh government against them.

According to them, they have the support of Sindh education department officials, as well as that of associations in the department on the matter.

Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) Karachi chapter president Professor Munawwar Abbasi and SPLA central president Professor Karim Ahmed Narejo maintained on the occasion headmaster and headmistresses appointed on the basis of merit had transformed government schools for the better.

Narejo called for a bill to be introduced in the Sindh Assembly at the earliest for regularising school principals.

They appealed to Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and the school education secretary to withdraw the condition of testing them again and address the issue of non-regularisaton.

The protesters warned of staging a protest outside the Chief Minister's House otherwise.