7,000 teachers boycott classes for pay raise

ISLAMABAD – Classes were boycotted completely by the teachers affiliated with Federal Directorate of Education on Thursday to register their protest over the non-implementation of teachers’ package announced by the prime minister on November 8, last year.
Demonstrations were held by the teachers during the last three months in the premises of their schools but on Thursday they boycotted the classes also. Dozens of protesting teachers gathered in front of FDE, where they raised slogans against the high-ups of FDE and the Ministry of Education.
However, the strike remained peaceful. On the other hand, students as usual reached their schools early in the morning but some of them had to go back without attending any class because of the protest and those who came in school buses remained in schools during school time.
“More than 7000 teachers of almost 400 institution of ICT have boycotted their classes today,” said Azhar Awan, resident Federal Government Teachers Association (FGTA). He said high-ups of FDE and Ministry of Education were befooling the teachers for the last three months by not implementing the package. He said strike will continue till the fulfillment of their demands.
“We have decided not to get trapped by DG, FDE, who has been giving us date after date for implementation.” To calm the teachers down, a high level meeting was convened by DG, FDE at FDE office and was attended by officials of Education Ministry, FDE and representatives of FGTS. However it proved to be counter-productive.
“The meeting lasted two hours, but the DG could not satisfy the teachers,” said a teacher who attended the meeting. FDE Director General Shaheen Khan appealed to teachers to end boycott of classes. She said being DG she was doing all in her power “I hope the matter is resolved amicably within 2 days.”
A series of meetings between leaders of teachers union and officials of FDE had taken place during the last three years, but proved to be inclusive as teachers refused to stop the protests till the notification was not issued by the Education ministry per their six-point charter of demands.