Teachers protest for regularisation

MARDAN: Dozens of male and female teachers of Basic Education Community School (BECS) on Monday staged a protest rally outside the Mardan Press Club and demanded permanent jobs. The rally was led by Hussain Irfani, Amir Suhail, Farhad, Nagin Bibi and others. Addressing the protest rally, speakers said that BECS was established in 1995 in more than 137 districts of the country. They added that more than 700,000 students were studying in these schools.

The speakers said that more than 11,908 teachers including 70 per cent women were performing duties in these schools. They added that according to the labour laws of the country, the salary of a labourer is Rs20,000; however, only 8,000 rupees salary is paid to the teachers in BECS.They claimed that the results of BECS were better than the state-run and private schools. The speakers added that government regularised the non-teaching staff of BECS while the teachers performing duties for the last 25 years had not been regularized so far. They said the high court had also given the directive to the government to regularise the teaching staff of BECS but despite the court order, the government was using delaying tactics. The speakers said that at a protest demonstration last year, the then education minister had agreed that the teachers would be regularised within one year; however, the commitment wasn’t honoured. They demanded the prime minister, president, chief justice and federal minister for education to meet their demand. Later, the protesters dispersed peacefully.