Tirah teachers demand jobs in govt schools

BARA: Office-bearers of Tirah Maidan Schools Association have asked the government to fulfill their demands and recruit them in government schools.

Speaking at a press conference at Bara Press Club on Thursday, Fazal Rabi Afridi, Rehmat Gul, Bacha Gul and others said that the military operation was launched against the militants in 2013 and as a result, the residents were displaced from the Maidan area.

When the security forces restored the state writ in the area, people returned and private schools reopened in 2014, he said.

He stated the erstwhile political administration and former governors including Sardar Mahtab Khan, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Shaukatullah had announced various development schemes for Tirah valley since 2014 that included setting up nearly 30 government schools and recruiting local private teachers in those schools.

Fazal Rabi said the monthly stipend of Rs7,000 given to at least half of their association members by the erstwhile political administration was also stopped last year after the tribal areas were merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The teachers teaching at these schools, he added, had boycotted classes because the promise of jobs was not honoured.

He said that around 12,000 students, including 1500 girls, were enrolled in the private schools across Tirah valley but majority of them belonged to poor families and could not afford the monthly fees.

“The provincial government has declared education emergency in the seven newly merged tribal districts but it has failed to fulfill its commitment of timely construction

of educational institutions in Maidan area that could have helped in providing free education to local children,” he added.

He urged the chief minister, provincial education minister and director education to expedite construction of all the new government schools in Tirah valley and accommodate all the private schoolteachers in those schools.

He demanded the government to accommodate the private schoolteachers in the government schools.