Protesting teachers

What police did to the protesting teachers in Peshawar on Thursday is a shameful act of disrespect, injustice, and violence. This response by the police, including teargas shelling near the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly building, should have been avoided as the teachers were simply voicing their demands by raising slogans. The police arrested dozens of schoolteachers and resorted to severe baton charge in addition to using indiscriminate teargas shelling. If the police wanted to disperse the rally, they should have given the protesters a certain time for their protest. The teachers were demanding an upgrade of their pay scales and restoration of allowances. The entirely uncalled-for police action has resulted in the closure of all government primary schools in the province as the Primary School Teachers’ Association of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa announced on Oct 7. According to reports, the teachers have now closed around 15,000 government primary schools for boys across the province and have called for even more protests across the province.

Teachers’ associations serve a certain purpose across the world – to be a collective voice of teachers whenever they have certain issues to negotiate with the government. In all democratic countries such associations stage protests if their demands are not met or the authorities refuse to listen to them. Where else are teachers and their representatives supposed to gather if not outside the KP Assembly? After all, that is the space where public representatives sit to discuss matters of public importance. Ideally, the provincial education minister or education secretary should have come to negotiate with the protesting teachers. Instead, the authorities employed a high-handed approach to browbeat the protesting teachers. The teachers’ body had been trying to reach a settlement with the provincial authorities but they were in no mood to negotiate or even listen to their demands. The police baton charged the protesters in the most ferocious way.

Let us not forget that these are the professionals who are responsible for grooming and nurturing our future generations; if they get this kind of treatment it is a sure sign of brutalization of society that is evident across Pakistan and even more so in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The action resulted in serious injuries to many teachers who were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital. The city police must be held accountable for this action and the PTI government which seems to be more interested in preparing for a long march must change its tendency to use force against anyone that dares protests. It must be made clear to police authorities that peaceful protests are allowed without any interference or use of force. One of the primary demands of the teachers is that primary schoolteachers be recruited to basic pay scale of 14 rather than 12. This demand is reasonable as our teachers deserve better pay and working conditions that our government schools hardly offer them. The provincial government has also cut down several allowances from teachers’ pensions which they were entitled to. A country where teachers are beaten up or disrespected can hardly hope for its education system to improve.