Irate teachers: Teachers throng The Mall, demand regularisation of jobs
SED has already agreed to whatever they are demanding, says Punjab Teachers’ Union.
Protesters from the Muttahida Asatza Mahaz also demand an end to non-academic duties for school teachers. PHOTO/SHAFIQ MALIK
LAHORE:
Hundreds of teachers from various districts responded to a call for protest made earlier this week by the Muttahida Asatiza Mahaz (MAM) and staged a demonstration on The Mall well into the evening on Friday.
The teachers were protesting against the government’s failure to regularise teachers hired on contractual basis and end non-academic duties; and they claimed that the government had falsified data to show improved indicators of education in the province.
The teachers, from various districts including Faisalabad and Sahiwal, held a rally starting at the Masjid-i-Shuhada. Traffic was blocked on The Mall for several hours in the evening.
Tariq Mehmood,chairman of the MAM, said the government was forcing teachers to submit false reports that would support their stance.
Mehmood said almost a year and a half ago, the government had promised to regularise thousands of teachers that had been hired on contract. He said the government’s failure to honour its commitment had forced the teachers to take to the streets.
“We are left with no choice but to protest against the government’s discriminatory attitude towards teachers,” he said.
Mehmood also criticised the government for fining teachers for students’ poor results. He said teachers were so burdened with non-academic activities, imposed on them by the government, that this was unfair. Hesaid that he had not attended a meeting,between teachers’ representatives and officials of the School Education Department, held on Wedneday. He said though the MAM has beenadvocatingteachers’ rights for a long time, the organisationhad been left out of the meeting with the SED officials.
Mehmood said around 1,300 posts of headmasterswere vacant and thousands of teachers were waiting to be promoted despite a notification issued by the chief minister in this regard. “Individual notification of teachers is pending, without which, none of this can materialise,” he said.
On May 6, the SED issued a notification saying thatthey had agreed with teachers on 16 major points in a meeting chaired by the SEDsecretary. Among the issues taken up were in-service promotion of teachers, implementation of uplift and upward mobility of teachers, regularisation of educators, accountability of educators on account of poor results of students in PEC examinations, completion of recruitment of teachers according to the recruitment policy of 2014 and provision of free textbooks among others.
The notification said that committees would be set up to address issues of maturity claims, study allowance and performance based incentives and upgrading primary and elementary teachers’ posts. The committees are required to submit reports on these by June 30. The notification also directed the Education EDO of each district to notify compliance with the agreements by June 10.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Teachers’ Union has that the decision to hold a protest rally despite an agreement between teachers’ bodies and the SED was uncalled for. Speaking to The Express Tribune,PTUgeneral secretary RanaLiaquat Ali said though the government had agreed to the teachers’ demands the MAM’s decision to hold a protest was in bad taste. “We reached an agreement on all of our demands and the SED issued a notification identifying a solution for each demand,” he said.
He said their demands had beengivena “political”taint by a certain segment of the teachers’ community. “We reject this attitude.”
The PTU issued a statement on Friday saying that the agreement signed with the SED included ending non-academic duties for teachers, forcing teachers who weren’t performing to retire, upgrading primary, elementary and secondary teachers’ postsin the next budget, and regularisingjobs of contractual teachers through a formal notification in the next week.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2015.
Hundreds of teachers from various districts responded to a call for protest made earlier this week by the Muttahida Asatiza Mahaz (MAM) and staged a demonstration on The Mall well into the evening on Friday.
The teachers were protesting against the government’s failure to regularise teachers hired on contractual basis and end non-academic duties; and they claimed that the government had falsified data to show improved indicators of education in the province.
The teachers, from various districts including Faisalabad and Sahiwal, held a rally starting at the Masjid-i-Shuhada. Traffic was blocked on The Mall for several hours in the evening.
Tariq Mehmood,chairman of the MAM, said the government was forcing teachers to submit false reports that would support their stance.
Mehmood said almost a year and a half ago, the government had promised to regularise thousands of teachers that had been hired on contract. He said the government’s failure to honour its commitment had forced the teachers to take to the streets.
“We are left with no choice but to protest against the government’s discriminatory attitude towards teachers,” he said.
Mehmood also criticised the government for fining teachers for students’ poor results. He said teachers were so burdened with non-academic activities, imposed on them by the government, that this was unfair. Hesaid that he had not attended a meeting,between teachers’ representatives and officials of the School Education Department, held on Wedneday. He said though the MAM has beenadvocatingteachers’ rights for a long time, the organisationhad been left out of the meeting with the SED officials.
Mehmood said around 1,300 posts of headmasterswere vacant and thousands of teachers were waiting to be promoted despite a notification issued by the chief minister in this regard. “Individual notification of teachers is pending, without which, none of this can materialise,” he said.
On May 6, the SED issued a notification saying thatthey had agreed with teachers on 16 major points in a meeting chaired by the SEDsecretary. Among the issues taken up were in-service promotion of teachers, implementation of uplift and upward mobility of teachers, regularisation of educators, accountability of educators on account of poor results of students in PEC examinations, completion of recruitment of teachers according to the recruitment policy of 2014 and provision of free textbooks among others.
The notification said that committees would be set up to address issues of maturity claims, study allowance and performance based incentives and upgrading primary and elementary teachers’ posts. The committees are required to submit reports on these by June 30. The notification also directed the Education EDO of each district to notify compliance with the agreements by June 10.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Teachers’ Union has that the decision to hold a protest rally despite an agreement between teachers’ bodies and the SED was uncalled for. Speaking to The Express Tribune,PTUgeneral secretary RanaLiaquat Ali said though the government had agreed to the teachers’ demands the MAM’s decision to hold a protest was in bad taste. “We reached an agreement on all of our demands and the SED issued a notification identifying a solution for each demand,” he said.
He said their demands had beengivena “political”taint by a certain segment of the teachers’ community. “We reject this attitude.”
The PTU issued a statement on Friday saying that the agreement signed with the SED included ending non-academic duties for teachers, forcing teachers who weren’t performing to retire, upgrading primary, elementary and secondary teachers’ postsin the next budget, and regularisingjobs of contractual teachers through a formal notification in the next week.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2015.