World Teachers’ Day: Demonstrations, not celebrations for teachers

‘Victimised and degraded’ teachers plan protests across province.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Teachers’ Union has called for a day of protests on October 5 (Saturday), which is World Teachers’ Day, to condemn the provincial government’s “ill-treatment of teachers”.

Protest camps will be set up at Rawalpindi, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha and Sahiwal on October 5, which will be marked as Yaum-i-Tahaffuz-i-Tauqeer-i-A\sataza, or Protecting Teachers’ Dignity Day. “This year teachers have been victimised and degraded by the government,” said Rana Liaquat Ali, the PTU’s general secretary.



In previous years, the union has commemorated October 5 as Teachers’ Day by giving out awards to teachers who have performed well. This year, it has no such plans. Ali said: “The governments are forcing teachers to conduct non-academic activities and when this affects their performance in schools they are being removed from service. How can anyone expect us to celebrate this day?”

The teachers’ latest grievance is the government’s plan to set up district-level education authorities, under the Punjab Local Government Act of 2013, to manage public schools. The authorities will include elected local government members and technocrats appointed by the provincial government. The chairman and vice chairman will also be chosen by the provincial government. Teachers fear that the district authorities will just lead to greater political interference in schools, particularly in the appointment and transfer of teachers, Ali said.



The teachers’ other complaints include the introduction of English as the language of instruction in all public schools, the additional non-academic duties handed to teachers, and the penalisation of teachers whose students get poor exam results.

The PTU had earlier threatened to boycott the Punjab government’s campaign to enrol all out-of-school children which began on Independence Day, saying that it was not their job to go door to door asking parents to send their kids to school, especially when they were being penalised for poor results, which itself was a consequence of their being engaged in non-school work and not spending enough time in the classroom.

“The government’s initiatives are all experimental,” said Ali, criticising a plan to introduce tablet computers at schools in the province. “It is ridiculous. Why don’t we first bring schools at par with those which have basic facilities instead of investing in these gadgets?”

The October 5 protest camps are to draw 700 to 800 teachers each, he said, adding that the union had sent notices to the education secretary and the education minister. The protests will continue across the province till October 15, the deadline set by the PTU for the government to roll back its plan to set up district education authorities.

PTU members will not boycott their work at school during this time. “We will be performing our duties in schools but we will also be protesting,” said Ali. The union is also planning large scale protests in November, including a rally from Nasser Bagh to the Punjab Assembly and a possible strike. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2013.