JHANG City News

Teachers sit-in against privatisation of schools

From Our Correspondent

JHANG: A large number of teachers under the banner of the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) staged a sit-in against the proposed privatisation of government schools in front of the press club here on Friday.

Addressing the protesters, PTU central president Ghulam Mohiuddin said that the issue of privatisation of schools had become a matter of life and death for the teachers. He alleged that the rulers and administrative officers were responsible for poor condition of the schools. He warned of a long march towards Islamabad if the government did not stop handing over schools to the NGOs till June 3. If the government moved ahead with its privatisation plan, it would adversely affect the children studying in schools as they would have to pay a tuition fee to be set by private administrators, he added.

PTU district president Muhammad Anwar Jappa said that the summer holidays had been announced but complete textbooks had still not been provided to the schools, which was the prime responsibility of the Education Department.

The PTU leaders alleged that the Punjab government had planned to gradually privatise 5,000 schools in the province to deprive the teachers of government jobs and that was why up-gradation and promotion of the teachers had been halted from a long time. PTU Women Wing district president Shazia Naheed and others also spoke on the occasion.