Schoolteachers stage protest demo

LAHORE: A large number of schoolteachers gathered outside Punjab Civil Secretariat here on Thursday and protested against the School Education Department for, according to them, ignoring issues faced by the teachers across Punjab.

The call for protest was given by United Teachers Council (UTC), a conglomerate of different teacher associations. A good number of female teachers also participated in it and expressed their concerns over "anti-teacher and "anti-education" policies of the School Education Department.

Carrying banners and placards, the peaceful protesters chanted slogans against the provincial bureaucracy for thousands of vacant posts of school heads and non-regularisation of contract teachers, claiming the situation was much better in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.

The UTC leaders, including Tariq Mahmood, Hafiz Abdul Nasir said the charge of seven out of nine examination boards had been given to divisional commissioners. They alleged the bureaucracy wanted to grab the posts traditionally held by school and college teachers. They added the schoolteachers in Punjab were also deprived of maturity claim on the basis of group insurance. The teachers also condemned the department for taking disciplinary action against schoolteachers on the basis of results of the students.