Teachers protest ‘privatisation’ of schools

LAHORE:Different teachers associations, including Punjab Teachers Union (PTU), on Thursday announced academic boycott from Friday (today) as a protest against the Punjab govt for what they termed the govt’s anti-education and anti-teachers policies.

A large number of teachers staged a protest demonstration outside Punjab Civil Secretariat against the Punjab govt on Thursday. Primarily organised by teachers of public schools under the banner of PTU and Grand Teachers Alliance Punjab, the teachers from colleges representing Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) also participated in the demo to express solidarity with the protesting teachers.

They criticised the government for privatising education by handing over administrative control of public schools to NGOs. They demanded regularisation of SSSEs/AEOs, time-scale and in-service promotions, recruitment of new teachers and increase in award of different allowances to teachers including science teaching allowance.

The protest demo which continued till late evening caused a traffic mess on The Mall and many adjacent roads. A contingent of police was also present. Talking to The News, Rana Liaqat said that school teachers across the province would observe academic boycott from Friday (today) while the World Teachers' Day to be celebrated on October 5, would be observed as a black day.