Teachers unite against schools' privatisation
On the call of the Grand Teachers Alliance, government school teachers completely locked down all public schools across the six districts of Rawalpindi Division on Monday as part of the ongoing protest against the sale of government schools to private owners and teacher layoffs.
On Saturday, the teachers had staged a protest and took out rallies for their demands to be met. Students were sent home early morning and the teaching system was completely halted.
The striking teachers took out a large protest rally and have announced a boycott of the entire educational teaching process including examinations, and a complete shutdown of the anti-dengue campaign until their demands gets approved. Leaders of the protest declared that the Punjab government intends to make millions of teachers and non-teaching staff jobless, which would push their families into poverty, but they would not allow this to happen.
After the boycott and lockdown, both male and female teachers, along with clerical staff, carried out a large protest rally, marching from Liaquat Bagh to Murree Road. Leaders of the Grand Teachers Alliance, including Malik Amjad, Basharat Iqbal Raja, Akhian Gul, Hamid Ali Shah and Qazi Imran led the protest march. Participants carried placards and banners with slogans against the privatisation of government schools, teacher layoffs and the Teachers' Needs Assessment Test (TNAT). A large number of female teachers also participated in the protest.
The protest march went from the Press Club to Liaquat Bagh and then all the way to the Education Office. During their speeches, the leaders criticised the Chief Minister of Punjab, stating that her policies have paralysed the entire education system. "The sale of government schools would be disastrous, which will result in school closures, massive increase in fee and close the doors of education for children from poor families," they said.
They also warned that unemployment will lead to an increase in the crime rate. They demanded the government halt the privatisation of government schools and recruit teachers for vacant positions. Due to the protest, traffic on Murree Road was completely disrupted for an hour.
On the other hand, the Education Department took retaliatory action against the teacher's leaders by dismissing them from their jobs and suspending them by issuing show cause notices under the PEDA Act and have started calling them for personal hearing for dismissals, however, the teachers have rejected the show-cause notices and suspensions.
Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Clerks Association also held a protest and complete strike against the privatisation of schools. Clerical leaders Shehzad Manzoor Kiyani, Chaudhry Mubashir, Raja Aftab and Mirza Tauqeer stated that their protest would continue until their demands were met, which has left the administrative system in educational institution offices completely paralysed.