‘We will not be patient anymore’

As many as 5,600 teachers of federal government schools not been given their due promotions for the past two decades.

ISLAMABAD: As many as 5,600 teachers of 380 federal government schools have not been given their due promotions for the past two decades, said President of Federal Government Teachers Association (FGTA), Azhar Mehmood.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Mehmood said if the federal directorate of education is delaying the promotions because the authority is facing a financial crunch, then the government should exclude the employees of the non-academic group from the upgradation package as well.

“The non-academic employees have been enjoying promotions since 1993,” he said. FGTA has sent a formal request to the federal directorate
of education in this regard,
he added.

President of FGTA said that the teachers were promised promotions and other benefits under an ‘upgradation package’, first on the International Teachers Day on October 5, and then on Salam Teacher’s Day on October 19. “Our demands have not been met and we will not be patient anymore,” he stressed.

Mehmood said in the last general body meeting he was given authority to decide the future line of action in case the teachers were not given promotions by October 19.

He warned that if the demands are not met by October 31 there will no longer be peaceful protests. Teachers will stat wearing black ribbons on their arms and will even close down the schools, he added.

“I was appointed as a teacher under grade-16 in 1991,” said Shahid Ahmed, a teacher in a school he requested not to be named.

He said despite acquiring MSc and B.Ed degrees – which is a requirement for a teacher’s promotion – he is yet to be given his due promotion.

He alleged that promotion of teachers have been “blocked due to the monopoly created by 791 officials of the administrative group, who have occupied all major positions in the education directorate”.

Director General Federal Directorate of Education, Dr Shaheen Khan, said she was hopeful that the upgradation package will be implemented “very soon”.

She said the package will be in accordance to the demands of the teachers. Though the government is facing a financial crunch, the education minister has promised that the package will be implemented as per wishes of
the teachers.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2010.