Teachers continue protest against schools ‘privatisation’

LAHORE

Schoolteachers’ sit-in against the Punjab government’s move to hand over public primary schools to private sector continued for the third consecutive day on Sunday despite hot weather. 

Dozens of schoolteachers have been staying day and night on The Mall at Faisal Chowk near the Punjab Assembly since Friday afternoon. The sit-in witnesses momentum, usually, in evenings when the protesting teachers find some relief from the scorching heat.

The schoolteachers have been protesting on the call of All Asataza Alliance Punjab—an alliance of different teachers associations including those representing educators as well as a faction of Punjab Teachers Union (PTU). Besides protest against privatisation of public schools, the teachers’ main demand is to upgrade teaching posts. 

A large number of teachers gathered again on Sunday evening and a number of teachers’ leaders spoke on the occasion and criticised the Punjab government for failing to manage its schools and now is planning to hand over the same to private sector.

All Asataza Alliance Punjab’s president Sufi Ramzan Inqalabi said the teachers had been in dialogue with the education minister and secretary of schools for over a year but the teachers only received false assurances in return. He said the government’s indifferent attitude forced the teachers to observe the sit-in along with their kids.

Sufi Ramzan Inqalabi said the schoolteachers would not call off their protest unless the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif issues notification about the cancellation of handing over of public schools to NGOs through the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and the notification about up-gradation of teachers.

Meanwhile, in a press release on Sunday the Headmasters Association Punjab (HMAP) termed the demands of protesting teachers genuine and appealed to the government to immediately address their concerns including the one about privatisation of public primary schools.

HMAP central president Rahseed Ahmed Bhatti and office-bearers observed that charge allowance of school heads should be raised two times while they should also be awarded laptops. They said the school heads should also be authorised to fill the class-IV posts that had been lying vacant for years now while ban on the transfer of teachers should also be lifted with immediate effect. The sit-in by schoolteachers continued till filing of the report.