Daily Times

LAHORE: The public schoolteachers of Punjab, under the platform of Grand Teachers Alliance (GTA), staged a protest on Monday at Lahore Press Club against non-implementation of promises made by the School Education Department (SED).

Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) President Sajjad Kazmi, Punjab Association of Subject Specialists (PASS) President Rana Atta Muhammad, PTU General Secretary Rana Liaquat Ali and others participated in the protest.

The protestors were holding placards and banners inscribed with their demands. They also chanted slogans in favour of their demands and against the SED management.

They said that the SED had promised them during their previous protest that it would privatise schools, handover schools to NGOs, and upgrade the scales of teachers, but nothing was done.

While addressing on the occasion, Sajjad Kazmi said that the government was punishing teachers against failures of its own policies by transferring them to rural areas and not promoting them.

He said that even those schools where teachers worked hard for achieving better results were being handed over to NGOs like Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Danish School Authority.

Sajjad further said that a new clerk was being hired at basic pay scale (BPS)-17 by Punjab government, but the teachers, who spend 16 to 18 years of their lives in educating themselves, were given BPS- 9 to BPS-14, which is a proof of the government’s incompetence and lack of vision. The upgradation of these scales was pending for last two years, but the government and SED were not interested in the welfare of teachers and providing them a better future, he added.

The GTA announced to hold province-wide protest on November 10 if their demands were not met.