LAHORE: The Punjab public schoolteachers have raised serious concern over the Punjab government’s plan to hand over more public schools to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF). Reacting to the proposed outsourcing of schools, various teachers’ unions have once again threatened province-wide protests and sit-ins. On Saturday, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a meeting disclosed that a plan was being made to outsource 10,000 schools in the province. The meeting was told that enrolment of students had increased considerably after outsourcing 4,300 schools showing poor performance. Meanwhile, Talking to Daily Times, Talking to Daily Times, Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) General Secretary Rana Liaqat Ali said that government’s plan to outsource around 10,000 public schools to NGOs through the PEF was an unwise decision. He said that development in the education sector could not be achieved by outsourcing schools but by taking teachers on board, who are the real stakeholders. “Do not ruin the education sector by new experiments,” he said. He blamed the PEF management for manipulating enrolment figures in government schools. “If the government wants to improve the education sector then it should take all stakeholders, including teachers, on board and put an end to insecurity among teachers. He said that education polices devised by foreign and some local advisors had failed to yield desired results. He demanded the government to avoid extermination and take reasonable decisions to increase the education standards. He said that the teachers would take to the streets if their demands were not met. Separately, All Teachers Alliance Punjab (ATAP) President Sufi Ramazan said that government had failed to fulfil its promises. “Instead of upgrading teachers it has once again planned to hand over schools to NGOs, which is completely condemnable,” he said, adding the massive budget allocation for PEF was only meant to outsource more and more schools. Talking about the 10 percent pay raise, he said that government must increase teacher’s salaries up to 30 percent. He too threatened to hold protests after Eid to press the government to accept their demands.