Still awaiting regularisation: NEF teachers term minister’s statement ‘eyewash’
The teachers threatened to go on a hunger strike if their demands were not addressed on priority.
GILGIT:
Nearly 100 teachers of National Education Foundation (NEF) staged a day-long sit-in, demanding regularisation of their services, in front of the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Legislative Assembly on Monday.
They maintained that G-B Education Minister Ali Madad Sher’s recent statement, that services of 1,460 NEF teachers had been regularised and their package revised, is“eyewash”.
“His statement was only meant to delay our strike call,” claimed NEF Teachers Association President Ghulam Akbar while addressing the protesters. He added that since June none of the teachers have been paid their salaries.
The teachers threatened to go on a hunger strike if their demands were not addressed on priority. One of the protesting teachers said that she and her son would go on hunger strike till death against the injustice.
Till the filing of this report, no government official contacted the teachers. However, Mohammad Iqbal, a district administration official, assured that the teachers’ grievances have been conveyed to the chief minister.
Hired under the Social Action Programme that started in 1994, the teachers were posted in schools located in far-flung valleys of G-B. However in 2009, their services were placed under NEF through a notification issued by the Federal Ministry of Kashmir Affairs upon the request of the G-B government.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2012.
Nearly 100 teachers of National Education Foundation (NEF) staged a day-long sit-in, demanding regularisation of their services, in front of the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Legislative Assembly on Monday.
They maintained that G-B Education Minister Ali Madad Sher’s recent statement, that services of 1,460 NEF teachers had been regularised and their package revised, is“eyewash”.
“His statement was only meant to delay our strike call,” claimed NEF Teachers Association President Ghulam Akbar while addressing the protesters. He added that since June none of the teachers have been paid their salaries.
The teachers threatened to go on a hunger strike if their demands were not addressed on priority. One of the protesting teachers said that she and her son would go on hunger strike till death against the injustice.
Till the filing of this report, no government official contacted the teachers. However, Mohammad Iqbal, a district administration official, assured that the teachers’ grievances have been conveyed to the chief minister.
Hired under the Social Action Programme that started in 1994, the teachers were posted in schools located in far-flung valleys of G-B. However in 2009, their services were placed under NEF through a notification issued by the Federal Ministry of Kashmir Affairs upon the request of the G-B government.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2012.