Industrial action: Teachers to protest attendance targets

PTU general secretary Rana Liaquat Ali Khan says the focus is not on what is being taught, it is on a show of numbers.

LAHORE:

Public school teachers across the province are preparing to stage demonstrations against the government in the first week of April.

They are objecting to the government’s demand for 95 per cent attendance, for students as well as teachers.

The Punjab Teachers’ Union says the  “unreasonable demand” would make it challenging for teachers facing the threat of penalties and pressure to ensure attendance rates to focus on academic duties.

The PTU says the union plans to block major roads. In Lahore they plan to stage a sit-in outside the civil secretariat on April 3. They are demanding that the government revise its goals, set under the chief minister’s Punjab Education Reforms Roadmap. Earlier, the goal had been set at 90 per cent.

PTU general secretary Rana Liaquat Ali Khan told The Express Tribune that the government was being unreasonable.

“There is no focus on what is being taught in classrooms, instead the focus is on a show of numbers”, he said. Khan dismissed the government’s claims of having achieved attendance goals last year.

“Teachers have been under immense pressure to show improved attendances statistics. There have been times when we were close to begging students to make it to classes”, he said.

According to School Education Department data, student attendance increased from 82 per cent in 2011 to 92 per cent at the end of 2013. SED figures also suggest that teacher attendance rose from 80.7 per cent in 2011 to around 90 per cent by 2013. Earlier in January, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had claimed that both student and teacher attendance had risen to 92 per cent. However, a survey under the Annual Status of Education Report 2013 indicated that student and teacher attendance stood at 89 per cent and 88.5 per cent, respectively.

“It’s not the teacher’s fault if students do not attend classes,” said a mathematics teacher from a government middle school for boys. The teacher said the government was unjustly accusing teachers of failing to attract students to class.

“We cannot force a child to come to school…we can only teach. Even that becomes difficult with the non-academic duties assigned to us”.

Khan says out of 250 academic days, teachers are assigned duties on nearly 100 days.

The PTU has also expressed reservations over teacher’s duties during the Punjab Youth Festival. Khan said that a teacher was assigned to supervise every 25 student volunteers.

“This means neglecting academic work”, Khan added. He said if teachers refused to go to the festival they were penalised under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act 2006.

The PTU has planned a rally from Nasser Bagh to the civil secretariat on April 3, where more than 5,000 teachers from the Lahore division are expected to stage a sit-in.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2014.