Teachers to support degree verification

Association’s President says no ‘transparent’ seniority list has ever been made.

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan Teachers Association (G-BTA) on Thursday said that it will support the government move to verify teachers’ degrees.

“We want degrees of all teachers to be checked,” said President of the association Shahid Hussain, while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said that G-BTA will favour any action against any teachers found possessing fake degrees.

The decision to verify degrees of all government employees in Gilgit-Baltistan by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was taken by the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah after demands by various government departments.

The president said that no “transparent” seniority list of teachers has ever been made. “This is disrespectful to the profession and injustice with the teachers. Compilation of a seniority list is inevitable to end this unrest.”

“We will not play politics with this issue as the future of new generation is at risk,” Hussain said.

He said that his association will not back out of their struggle and will continue to raise their voice for teachers’ rights at all forums. He added that the court’s ruling regarding increase in salaries for G-B teachers has not been implemented.

Sources said that a number of teachers had been secretly approaching the G-BTA asking it to oppose the G-B government’s plan to verify the degrees.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2010.