Out on the streets: Teachers protest on controversial university law for a third day
Professors, teachers’ associations across Sindh to stage protest at CM House today.
The teachers wore black bands on their arms and boycotted the classes and exams for the third day on Wednesday. PHOTO: EXPRESS
KARACHI:
Hundreds of teachers took to the streets on Wednesday against the controversial universities law as their province-wide protest entered its third day.
Rejecting the Sindh Universities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2013, the teachers have demanded elimination of certain provisions that were believed to have undermined the autonomy of universities. The teachers wore black bands on their arms and boycotted the classes and exams for the third day on Wednesday. Several general body meetings at public-sector universities across the province were also held.
The University of Karachi (KU), the largest public-sector higher education facility in the province, wore a deserted look in the midst of the ongoing semester exams. The campus, where the regular students’ enrolment is slightly over 24,000, hardly a students showed up on the day.
On Monday, the teachers decided to stay away from their duties for an indefinite time on the call of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (Fapuasa). The call came after the Sindh chief minister secretariat attempted to bring into play the controversial provisions of the new act. Through an advertisement on Sunday, the secretariat had invited applications for appointments to the posts of registrar, director finance and examinations controller at 20 public universities across the province.
“All these administrative appointments were earlier used to come within the purview of the universities in order to ensure the autonomy in their internal affairs with help of democratically elected statutory bodies,” argued Fapuasa Sindh’s secretary-general Muhammad Moiz Khan, as he declared the government’s advertisement an “unwarranted intervention”.
After the general body meeting at KU, several hundred teachers marched from the university’s administration block to the neighbouring NED University of Engineering and Technology. They shouted slogans of ‘Na khappay, na khappay... Amendment Act na khappay’ as they walked.
KU teachers’ society president Dr Syed Jamil Hassan Kazmi asserted that the students’ academic loss due to teachers’ strike was their major consideration and the teachers did feel strongly about it. “This is, however, a small sacrifice as compared to the much detrimental sacrifice of accepting the government’s ploy to reduce the stature of universities,” he said.
He vowed that the academic activities in the universities from Karachi to Khairpur will remain suspended until the government revokes its controversial advertisement and formally approves the 11 amendments that the teachers presented to provincial law minister Sikandar Mandhro.
“Due to these incompetent politicians, we have to see this day when teachers, whose prime responsibility is to impart knowledge inside the classrooms, have to come out on the roads to protect the academic and administrative freedom of universities,” said Dr Shakeelur Rehman Farooqui, a genetics professor at KU. “We will not let the seats of higher learning lose their stature in the clutches of these corrupt politicians.”
Since the teachers had already announced to stage a sit-in at Chief Minister House on Thursday (today), Dr SM Taha, a history professor, warned that the government will not be able to quell the teachers’ protests through water cannons and batons.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2014.
Hundreds of teachers took to the streets on Wednesday against the controversial universities law as their province-wide protest entered its third day.
Rejecting the Sindh Universities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2013, the teachers have demanded elimination of certain provisions that were believed to have undermined the autonomy of universities. The teachers wore black bands on their arms and boycotted the classes and exams for the third day on Wednesday. Several general body meetings at public-sector universities across the province were also held.
The University of Karachi (KU), the largest public-sector higher education facility in the province, wore a deserted look in the midst of the ongoing semester exams. The campus, where the regular students’ enrolment is slightly over 24,000, hardly a students showed up on the day.
On Monday, the teachers decided to stay away from their duties for an indefinite time on the call of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (Fapuasa). The call came after the Sindh chief minister secretariat attempted to bring into play the controversial provisions of the new act. Through an advertisement on Sunday, the secretariat had invited applications for appointments to the posts of registrar, director finance and examinations controller at 20 public universities across the province.
“All these administrative appointments were earlier used to come within the purview of the universities in order to ensure the autonomy in their internal affairs with help of democratically elected statutory bodies,” argued Fapuasa Sindh’s secretary-general Muhammad Moiz Khan, as he declared the government’s advertisement an “unwarranted intervention”.
After the general body meeting at KU, several hundred teachers marched from the university’s administration block to the neighbouring NED University of Engineering and Technology. They shouted slogans of ‘Na khappay, na khappay... Amendment Act na khappay’ as they walked.
KU teachers’ society president Dr Syed Jamil Hassan Kazmi asserted that the students’ academic loss due to teachers’ strike was their major consideration and the teachers did feel strongly about it. “This is, however, a small sacrifice as compared to the much detrimental sacrifice of accepting the government’s ploy to reduce the stature of universities,” he said.
He vowed that the academic activities in the universities from Karachi to Khairpur will remain suspended until the government revokes its controversial advertisement and formally approves the 11 amendments that the teachers presented to provincial law minister Sikandar Mandhro.
“Due to these incompetent politicians, we have to see this day when teachers, whose prime responsibility is to impart knowledge inside the classrooms, have to come out on the roads to protect the academic and administrative freedom of universities,” said Dr Shakeelur Rehman Farooqui, a genetics professor at KU. “We will not let the seats of higher learning lose their stature in the clutches of these corrupt politicians.”
Since the teachers had already announced to stage a sit-in at Chief Minister House on Thursday (today), Dr SM Taha, a history professor, warned that the government will not be able to quell the teachers’ protests through water cannons and batons.
KU teachers as well as the teacher representatives from other provincial public universities will be joining the protest at CM House following the Fapuasa general body meeting at KU today.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2014.