Misuse: Education authorities to ban teachers’ unions in Faisalabad

Teachers ignore official orders and instructions: official.

FAISALABAD:

The education authorities have decided to ban all teachers’ unions in the district.

A worker at the district education office said on Thursday “a number of teachers are taking advantage of the unions’ support and not performing their teaching duties efficiently.”He said “the teachers had been issued warnings and show cause notices and were not paying any heed to the official orders and instructions.”

The official said whenever the authorities moved to take action against the “delinquent” teachers unions provided them support and insisted that the authorities withdraw orders against them. He said, “Some office bearers of teachers’ unions also encourage violation of discipline at schools.”

He said the results of government schools were poor because of such teachers.

He said a comprehensive report has been sought from heads of schools in this respect.

Muhammad Eshaq, an office bearer of Punjab Teachers’ Union, said “the constitution allows organisation of unions. Why are the education authorities banning these?” He said the unions were formed to highlight the problems faced by the teachers. “The organisation of trade unions is imperative to protect teachers’ rights. If education authorities impose a ban on unions, the teachers will resist it.” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2013.