Alternative narrative: Teachers’ associations - bane or boon?

Picture a scenario from last year, when outgoing govt was about to hand over charge to interim set-up.

ISLAMABAD: Picture a scenario from last year, when the outgoing government was about to hand over charge to the interim set-up.

At this critical juncture, hundreds of teaching and non-teaching staffers from about 424 schools and colleges of the capital decided to press their demands for regularisation of service and health allowances, among others. Boycotting classes and offices, the protesters marched from their respective institutions and culminated at D-Chowk, chanting slogans to compel the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) to accede to their agenda.

Amid miscommunications and grievances between the institutions’ employees and CADD, some associations for the preservation of the former’s needs and rights have sprung up, responsible for acts such as the aforementioned. Capable of rallying huge crowds, these associations are being run from school and colleges. Currently, there are around six associations formed by teachers from model colleges, federal government colleges, and schools, along with non-teaching staff.



One such organisation is the Federal Government Teachers Association (FGTA), which allegedly orchestrated the transfer of Bushra Hameed, formerly principal of the Islamabad Model School G-7/3, to the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). Blaming the FGTA, she moved the Islamabad High Court, which has issued notices to respondents, including the FDE, over her removal.

In response to this allegation and explaining the association’s role, FGTA President Azhar Awan remarked that the body aims to ensure the welfare of employees without any covert agendas. “The case of [Hameed] has nothing to do with us. She was removed after an FDE inquiry,” he explained, adding that it was their association which got the time-scale formula for teachers approved by the prime minister following protests. Strikes and protests are our last resorts, Awan added, as “we follow standard procedures to plead our cases at the outset”.

One complaint about FGTA and its sister associations is that affiliation with them entails such job security that the individuals become untouchable.

Another such association, the Central Academic Staff Association (CASA) of model colleges announced a strike earlier this year to protest the non-payment of salaries to hundreds of daily-wage staff and boycott examinations.

On the day of the strike, the issue went out of hand, and varying degrees of hostility were witnessed at some colleges, including the Islamabad Model College for Girls F-6/2.

Here, some association members allegedly misbehaved with female teachers by threatening them if they failed to comply with the association’s decision. The principal eventually had to register an FIR at the local police station.

Elaborating on their role, CASA President Rashid Khan from Islamabad College of Boys, G-6/3 remarked that when their demands were not met, they took to the streets.

“I personally do not get any perks or extra salary for leading this association. Instead, it is a laborious job. We are just playing a role between the administration and staff of model colleges,” he explained. In the case of the aforementioned strike, Khan said, the administration accepted their demands within three hours, which he felt could have been done before the teachers showed their strength.

Talking on the condition of anonymity, a senior teacher at Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2 opined that the associations help, but the way they run their affairs is cumbersome and incompatible with the daily operations of educational institutes. “The strikes led to the teachers cancelling a few of their classes, which were almost impossible to make up for later,” she explained.

“They could do these antics without disrupting the academic affairs and act like colleagues instead of masters,” she concluded.

Casting a light on these associations’ stake in administrative matters, a senior CADD official, requesting anonymity, said these politicised bodies have little say in positive developments in the education sector.

“You can always see them in the FDE or CADD, pressurising senior officers for transfers and postings of their blue-eyed boys and cornering those who oppose their agenda,” he said. He added that they never miss the chance to press for “unjustifiable” inductions of officials at the schools and colleges of their choice.

“Their role is no less than that of trade unions and bodies within other government organisations where politics abound, and their actual mandate is of secondary importance,” he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2014.