DPS teachers continue protest

LAHORE:The protest by the Divisional Public School (DPS) teachers against the school administration continued here on Friday with dozens of teachers staging a peaceful on-campus demonstration.

The protesting teachers chanted slogans against the school principal and the BoG members alleging that they had introduced anti-teachers policies. The teachers have been protesting against the school administration for what they described as the elimination of medical benefits, failure to provide the mandated annual pay raise, and the removal of the leave encashment facility. They also accused the administration of raising school fees and fines and implementing policies that allegedly led to a decline in student admissions.

In Friday's protest, they condemned the school admin for issuing show-cause notices to some of the teachers and warned of strong reaction in case disciplinary action was taken against any teacher. Talking to The News, Principal Brig (retd) Khurram Mahmood Rana said that DPS was an autonomous educational institution run by a BoG. “It has no link to the government of Punjab. The school expenses are mainly financed through tuition fee, 98% of which is spent on staff salary and pension,” he said and added that currently the school budget was in deficit. “Despite that we have given a 10 to 12% increase in the salaries. All financial information is transparent and shared with the staff,” he further said.

Rana went on to say that the medical facility was changed due to several complaints of misuse. It was decided by the BoG, before my joining as principal, that employees would avail medical facilities offered under Sehat card scheme. Junior staff avail the facilities under the govt social security scheme. The principal said that notices were issued to the staff members who have violated their code of conduct as per the rules and regulations of the school.