The three-day hunger strike camp organised by schoolteachers failed to move the government to implement a court order regarding their promotion. The protest concluded on Monday.
“If someone’s cattle is lost, somebody comes looking for it, but teachers have been sitting at the protest camp for the last three days, and no one from the government has come looking for us as to know why we are on strike,” said Bakht Afsar, president of All CT Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who was part of the protest staged near Peshawar Press Club along with some 60 teachers of different schools from across the province.
“On February 4 the Peshawar High Court had ordered promotion of CT teachers, having five years experience, to BPS-16,” said Mr Afsar.
He said the government had also not implemented a notification issued in 2012 to promote CT teachers to the posts of senior school teachers under 50 per cent quota. “There are around 1,400 vacant posts so why are not teachers promoted to fill these posts so they could focus on providing quality education instead of coming out on roads,” said Mr Afsar.
Other teachers, including Zafirullah and Rashid Khan from Lower Dir, also criticised the government for ignoring them. “How can the government bring reforms in education system by neglecting teachers,” they regretted.
“If you want education of international standard then you should also ensure salaries and privileges for the teachers of the same standard,” said Hidayatullah, another teacher, who added that not a single official from education department or the ruling PTI or JI turned up to listen to their problems.
Provincial chairman of the teachers’ association Mohammad Wahab Mansoori said the present government had reversed all the positive steps the previous government had taken for welfare of senior schoolteachers.
Nisar Ahmed, another teacher from Swat, said the government should satisfy teachers, give them incentives and then expect actual change from them.
Another teacher Khalid Saleem said the government, which always boasted of respecting the judiciary, had ignored the court decision regarding teachers’ promotion.
Saifur Rehman from Charsadda said if the teachers were not satisfied with the facilities and salary in the face of inflation, how could they concentrate on work.
Hameedul Haq said that all the teachers were hopeless as the government had ignored them.
Source: Daily Times.
