College teachers protest for four-tier promotion formula

Many college teachers from various districts in rural Sindh travelled to Karachi and staged a protest on Wednesday against the non-implementation of a four-tier promotion formula that existed in other provinces of the country.

One of the factions of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association had given an ultimatum to the provincial education department (college) almost a week ago that if their demands were not met within seven days, teachers would stage a sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club. They had planned to march to the Chief Minister’s House to draw his attention to the matter. However, the teachers had not attempted to reach the Chief Minister’s House by the time this report was filed.

 “We are fighting for the implementation of the four-tier formula for years now. But the Sindh government and its education department is not listening to us at all,” said one of the protesting teachers.

He added that the four-tier formula meant the inclusion of associate professors in the process.

“In the past, the then secretary education was one of the main hurdles and when the provincial government divided the education department into two separate departments, we thought our struggling days were over. But now we have realised that nothing has changed except the names and faces in the department,” he maintained.

The SPLA had announced staging a demonstration against the Sindh government as well as the education department (college) at a press conference on February 6 at the KPC after several meetings with officials had failed.

The central president of the SPLA factions, Ferozuddin Siddiqui, said teachers had gathered at the KPC to again present their demands and this was their right. “The teachers have decided that they will not go home until their demand for a four-tier formula is met.”

He said more than 200 teachers from across the province including Sukkur, Larkana, Nawabshah, Ghotki, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas had travelled to Karachi to demand their promotion.

Siddiqui also said the teachers would remain in Karachi and continue protesting the chief minister, the education minister or the secretary of college education would come to their camp, listen to their demands and order immediate implementation.

He further maintained that officials had always formed committees but never followed their inputs and suggestions.

Dr Riaz Ahmed Memon, the secretary education, college, too had offered to form a committee to resolve the matter but he will retire on March 3 and the committee will submit its report on March 2.

“Who will implement the suggestions if the secretary college will not be there next day to read them?”

Siddiqui said making committees was not the solution and 2000 were still waiting from their promotion.

He told The News that the SPLA was providing water and food to the teachers who had travelled to Karachi and had also made arrangements for them to stay at night at the DJ Science College.

He said the past, protesting teachers were treated like criminals and baton-charged by police, dispersed using water cannons and also locked up at police stations.

He added that the demands were simple as teachers wanted the implementation of the four-tier formula in Sindh, promotion of grade-18, -19 and -20 teachers, upgrading of colleges and reflections of posts in budget books.

The sanctioned number of teachers at Sindh’s colleges is around 10,200 while as per the four-tier formula, the ratio of teachers changed and each college should have a total of one percent of its teaching staff as professors, 15 percent as associate professors, 34 percent assistant professors and 50 percent lecturers.

The SPLA leader claimed that Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had already adopted the four-tier formula and implemented it at their colleges, but, unfortunately in Sindh, the ratio of professors and lecturers was the same as it was 27 years ago.