‘Lower grades to school teachers not acceptable’

LAHORE

Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) has warned that award of lower grades to government schoolteachers in Punjab will not be acceptable.

PTU Central General Secretary Rana Liaqat said on Sunday that there was unrest among schoolteachers because of delay in upgrade of teaching posts. He, however, added that teachers would not accept lower grades. He said upgrading Primary School Teacher (PST) to BS 12 and Elementary School Teachers (EST) to BS-15 would only disappoint the teachers. He said 50 percent of teachers in Punjab were serving in grade-12 and 14 while 50 percent ESTs were serving in grade 15 and 16. 

The PTU general secretary said young teachers having MPhil and PhD qualifications should be awarded grades on a par with the grades in other departments with similar qualifications. He said superintendents and senior clerks were being awarded grade 17 and grade 14 while schoolteachers were being awarded lower grades which was unfortunate.  He demanded the government upgrade PSTs and ESTs to grade 16 and SSTs to grade 17.