LAHORE: Public school teachers on Tuesday staged a protest against the education policies and for their long lasting demands outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat. They also announced to boycott classes, examinations and census after February 2, if their demands were not met.
The protestors were holding placards and banners besides they were chanting slogans against School Education Department (SED) and Punjab Government for not fulfilling their demands, which were promised. The protestors also blocked the road for several hours. The United Teachers’ Council (UTC) organised the protest and several other organisations participated in this protest. Their protested againt privatisation of public sector schools, handing over of Danish Schools to non government organisations (NGOs), the refusal of pay scale up-gradation and delay of disciplinary action against school head masters by SED.
While addressing on the occasion, the leaders of PTU and UTC condemned the education polices of Punjab government and termed different actions as negligence of SED and bureaucracy. They said that those schools which were producing good results are also being privatized for no valid reason. By doing so the government is not only creating problems for teachers, but the students are also suffering, they said.
They said that in previous protest which was mainly against the privatisation of schools, they were promised by government and SED officials that there demands would be fulfilled soon but now after several months has passed on, no one including government and SED officials are seems to be serious about solving the issues being faced by teachers. There is no reason for handing over schools to Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) as well as the schools, which have wide sports grounds and proper buildings were also being given to NGOs, they added.
A delegation of teachers was also called by SED officials for meeting and negotiation but later, the protestors dispersed and announced that they will not only boycott classes after February 2, but they will also boycott examinations of class 5 and 8 and national census which is scheduled to be held in March. UTC leaders also announced a massive protest outside Punjab Assembly on February 20, if their demands not met.
