Daily Times

LAHORE: Teachers community of Punjab public schools is facing a situation of unrest and fear of job security as they have termed the dealing of Punjab government with teacher’s sit-in as delaying tactics for suppressing their voice.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab government announced that it will hand over those public schools to Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Danish School Authority (DSA) who are not performing better in results of class 5 and class 8. Schools with pass percentage of lower than 25 per cent were announced to be handed to PEF, while schools with enrolled number of students less than 20 will be given to DSA. A group of teachers also held a protest sit-in from May 14 to May 15 at Faisal Chowk outside the Punjab Assembly.

Talking to Daily Times, PTU Muhiud Din Group President Hafiz Ghulam Muhiud Din was of the view that no one assured teachers in response of protest that they will not be fired or they would continue their work even after being handing over to NGOs, PEF or DSA, he added. He said that teacher’s concern is that they are serving the nation and future of nation but they are the most neglected part of the government.

How can a teacher perform well when he don’t know what’s his future, questioned Kashif Shahzad, Secretary General of Punjab Teachers Union. He said that the government school teachers are doing three times tough job than teachers of private schools as the government school teachers are facing lack of infrastructure, higher student ratio and one teacher is teaching more than four subjects.

Besides the teachers, parents of students studying in the government schools had also demanded teachers and the government to settle down the matter as soon as possible as this would only affect their children’s education.

Father of a student studying in a government school, Zafar, 41, said that only students are suffering by this tussle as both teachers and the government would get salaries and benefits at their hands. Zafar said that he is not interested whether the school would be handed over to NGOs or remain under administration of current department, but the learning process of his child should not be affected.