The ‘unwanted service structure’: Primary schoolteachers to boycott classes in protest

Demand change in policies affecting compensation and violating rights.

SWAT:

To protest against their new service structure, the All Primary Teachers Association (APTA) Swat has announced a complete boycott of all classes from October 25.

APTA Swat President Sikandar Shah Bacha stated that the new primary school teacher (PST) service structure was a rights’ violation and they would no longer stand by while they were being deprived.

He said that in order to follow the provincial leader’s decisions, the teachers will observe complete boycott from classes till the end of the month.

APTA has been demanding their rights for over a month, beginning as a black-ribbon demonstration before extending to a daily boycott from two classes. The teachers believe that they play an
instrumental role in preparing a child for further education.

“We mould young children into a mature young adult and prepare them for further education. We play a key role in a student’s career, but we are always sidelined. Our protest will go on until our demands are met,” the APTA Swat president added.

Giving detail of the demands behind the teachers’ protest, Mutahida Mahaze Asateza Swat President Qari Mohammad Ali told The Express Tribune that the teachers refuse to accept a one-time promotion policy under the time-scale promotion formula, adding that “it should be based on experience”. Ali said that teachers with B.A 3rd divisions have been stopped from every promotion and “we want them to be included in the promotion cadre”. He added that only Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) teachers are deprived of teaching allowance.

Ali proposed that all contributed provident funds should be converted to government provident funds, while noting that the government has allegedly blocked PSTs with higher qualifications from being promoted to senior school teachers. Additionally, he said that the PSTs should not face any resistance in checking, marking and setting papers of board exams. He said that they have also sought a “Mehram allowance” for female teachers.

Ali further said that 25 teachers have been killed during the militancy and the government should compensate them accordingly.

Presently, more than 12 different teachers’ associations are working for their welfare and there is a need of one association under government umbrella.

Ali added that the current policy allowed negligible allowances for PSTs and sought to increase on each designated level.

Sardar Hussain Babak, minister for Education KP while talking to local media, resolved that the reservations of teachers would be addressed and sorted out.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2011.