The Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) has planned to observe a hunger strike and take out a rally on April 9 in Lahore against the governments discriminatory behaviour against them. A spokesman of PTU told that teachers decided to reach at Lahore from 36 districts of Punjab to join this rally and hunger strike.
The PTU spokesman said teachers from across the province would attend the rally and the hunger strike, adding that the teachers would continue the strike until their charter of demands was met. "More than 100,000 teachers from 36 districts will attend the rally," he said. He said teachers were the backbone of the society, as they were responsible for training and educating the future generations.
He said teachers were very firm in their demands, adding that the strike would prove their determination. He said eachers were asking for an increase in their salaries to the equivalent of 11 grams of gold, teaching allowance, regularising contractual teachers. They also demanded to remove army officials from monitoring duty, equal benefits for teachers working in rural and urban areas, upgrade basic pay scales, claim of group insurance and enhancing welfare fund.
Bhatti said several demands must be addressed immediately, as they had created sense of insecurity among the teachers. He said the retired army officers often visited schools, adding that it frightened both the children and the teachers.
He said the Education Department had already appointed assistant education officers (AEO) to monitor the schools so, there was no need for retired army officials as long as the AEO concerned was performing his duties. "The Education Department provides the officials with a large salary and petrol allowance. They also get motorcycles but the department has not provided them any equipment to aid them in monitoring the schools," Bhatti added.
He said any teacher getting appointed under the Primary School Teacher (PST) cadre had no option but to retire in the same cadre. "Either the teacher must improve his qualifications by attaining a Masters in Education," he said.
He said the teachers appointed in urban areas were provided more facilities in comparison to teachers appointed in rural areas. "The teachers in urban areas are given 45 percent of house rent and conveyance allowance. The teachers appointed in rural areas are only provided 30 percent of the house rent is given and no conveyance allowance if provided to them," he said. He said it was also extremely difficult for the heirs of a teacher to attain welfare fund from the authorities concerned if the teacher had passed away.
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