PTU demands lifting of ban on leaves

Punjab Teachers’ Union district president Rana Altaf Hussain said 100 per cent attendance was not possible in any case

MULTAN:

Punjab Teachers’ Union district president Rana Altaf Hussain said on Wednesday that district officials of the Education Department had placed a blanket ban on leaves including maternity leave, paternity leave and other fixed annual leaves in lieu of upcoming local government elections.

Addressing a press conference, Hussain said teachers requesting sick leaves had been denied days off ever since election duties were announced. He said teachers had been told that they would not get days off till polling day. “Even women teachers have been denied maternity leave.”

He said teachers had been left at the mercy of Education Department’s district officials whose highhandedness had left the teachers of the district miserable.

He said 100 per cent attendance was not possible in any case. “Teachers are not robots who can work like machines. They are human beings…they get ill sometimes and have other priorities.”

Hussain said the teachers were under constant mental stress because of the Education Department’s highhandedness. He said that teachers would take to the streets if Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the minister for education and the schools secretary did not take action in this regard.

When contacted, the education executive district officer refused comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2015.