LAHORE: The teachers of public sector schools on Tuesday announced to boycott the educational activities across the province starting from next month if their demands were not met by the government.
According to details, teachers from different parts of the province included Bahawalnagar, Narowal, DG Khan, Multan, Rawalpindi, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Mandi Bahaudin and Faisalabad staged a demonstration in front of Punjab Civil Secretariat and School Education Department under the platform of United Teachers Council (UTC) -an amalgamation of eight factions of different teacher’s union to press for their demands.
Main demands of the teachers included the increase in salaries and abolishing the recently established district education authorities. Most of the teachers were of the view that they have been assigned non-academic activities by the department that included dengue surveillance, administering the anti-polio vaccine and to ensure the cleanliness in the schools
The teachers threatened to boycott the educational activities if the education department didn’t pay any heed to their demands.
“An unqualified person imparts education to higher classes whereas a well-qualified educator educates lower classes in the current system”, Muhammad Tayyab, a school teacher from Fort Abbas (Bahawalnagar) told Pakistan Today. He further informed that more than fifty teachers from Bahawalnagar have joined the protest to demand their rights.
Another teacher Abdul Rehman from district Narowal told this scribe that the government is planning to privatise the schools which would not be accepted by the teachers.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Punjab Teachers Union General Secretary Kashif Shahzad Chaudhry said that the teachers of the province had been suppressed by the government for past two years and their demands were not being met, “We were told today that the secretary of school education department is out of the country and no decision can be taken in his absence,” he concluded.