Non-acceptance of demands: Primary teachers go on strike in KP

PESHAWAR: The academic activities in all the primary schools across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were suspended as the primary school teachers kicked off a mass sit-in outside the Jinnah Park here on Tuesday to press the government for acceptance of their demands.

Thousands of primary teachers gathered outside the Jinnah Park for the protest from across the province on the call of All Primary Teachers Association (APTA).

“The schools will remain closed and the sit-in will continue till acceptance of all our demands,” Azizullah Khan, president APTA, told The News.

He said that teachers from over 26,000 primary schools in the province assembled in the provincial metropolis on Tuesday morning to underscore their demands. He said that the administration had already shut down the Jinnah Park for entry of all individuals, that was why they staged a sit-in on the footpath outside the park.

“The provincial government has failed to honour its commitment to upgrade the status of primary school teachers, which was approved but never implemented. This inaction has caused frustration among teachers,” Azizullah stated.

He said that the teachers have arrived in the provincial metropolis for the sit-in as a last resort to press the government to implement their upgradation. Some 25,000 to 30,000 teachers participated in the sit-in on the first day and the number would keep increasing with each passing day, he added.

He informed that a team from the district administrations accompanied by representatives from the Education Department approached them and urged them to call off the strike. But the teachers, he said, insisted that they would not end their protests until they get a concrete assurance for acceptance of their demands.

Azizullah Khan was also angry at certain statements of the high-ups of the provincial government and the education department that action would be taken against teachers concerned for closing schools and participating in the sit-in. He said that they were ready to bear all the consequences and would never be scared by the hollow statements.

Also, he said that the teachers were not staying at any school as claimed by a minister who warned that action would be taken against the schools where the protestors would choose to stay. He ridiculed the statement as a naïve one and said that the teachers had come for sit-in on the road and they were staying on the road under open sky not in schools.

He said that if the provincial government continued to issue such silly statements and averted to accept their demands at the earliest, they would shift the sit-in to the main road outside provincial assembly and the government would be responsible for consequences.

The schools across the province would continue to close today and till resolution of the issue, he added.