Daily Times

LAHORE: Public schoolteachers in the province have announced to observe World Teachers’ Day on October 5 as ‘Black Day’ due to the government’s ignorance towards the education sector, especially when it came to providing relief to the teachers.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the All Teachers Alliance Punjab (ATAP), a representative association for public schoolteachers, stated that the Punjab government was deliberately neglecting teachers, as their statuses were still not being upgraded despite several promises of the education minister as well as education secretary.

While talking to Daily Times, ATAP President Sufi Ramzan Inqalabi deplored that the Punjab government was planning to award national institutions to its favourites and for this purpose; schools were being handed over to some “blue-eyed” non-government organisations. Teachers of all government schools in Punjab were united and they would even sacrifice their lives to save educational institutions from complete collapse, Ramzan added.

He observed that in Punjab, even policemen and clerks were being awarded upgradation in their salaries and perks, but alas, teachers were not in the priority list of the government. “It seems that the government neither wanted to upgrade teachers, nor it wanted to take back the decision of handing over of public schools to Punjab Education Foundation (PEF),” he lamented.

He went on say that teachers have now understood the government’s agenda, which included deliberately downplaying the performance public schools so that it could handover them to NGOs and their favourites after spending public money.

In the future, Ramzan said, after taking over these schools, heavy fees would be charged from poor citizens, which would not only discourage the parents from sending their children to schools, but would also snatch the jobs of teachers. “Our elders (teachers), who are now retired, kept boycotting for months, and were successful in getting their rights. I think same is the solution for today’s teachers as well,” he opined.

The ATAP president said that the government wanted to get teachers back to past where they were forced to boycott classes for their rights. “We have decided to not to celebrate World Teacher’s Day rather it would be observed as “Black Day” in public schools across the province, while teachers have been asked to wear black armbands in this regard,” he concluded.