THE Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) says the school education department has pushed them against the wall by implementing dictatorial policies and engaging them in many non- academic activities. It says the teachers are not being appreciated for their good work and punished for even minor faults, which sometimes may not even be their own. The PTU has warned the Punjab government to mend its ways otherwise schoolteachers will observe a sit-in in front of Punjab Civil Secretariat, while at divisional level teachers will block national highways on April 3. PTU Central President Sajjad Akbar Kazmi says teachers will protest against punishments over students’ abscence from classrooms, poor results and uncalled-for monitoring reports. He says the government is penalising the teachers community by refusing casual and privileged leaves, assigning non-academic duties and keeping mum on increasing salaries in line with price hike. The PTU leaders claim the school education department has taken administrative action against almost 8,000 teachers across the province, the number of which is continuously increasing. A PTU leader says the department is punishing teachers to appease Sir Michael Barber, UK’s Department for International Development special representative on education in Pakistan. “Teachers’ role starts when students enter classrooms. But the school education department is imposing fines and stopping annual increments of class in-charge and head teachers if class attendance is below 95pc,” says PTU Information Secretary Rana Liaquat Ali. He observes that the administration officials are penalising teachers without giving them the right to clarify. In D.G. Khan, he says, a secondary school teacher was demoted to elementary school teacher for showing poor results. Claiming that teachers were suffering from depression, he said, the department was not even paying heed to women teachers’ problems or allowing them leaves despite genuine reasons. The PTU spokesman says the school education department is also denying teachers their casual leaves. Observing that the government prepares and implements policies in the department without consulting teachers, he adds the government eventually holds teachers responsible for every failed policy. “The dropout ratio in schools increased due to the introduction of English as a medium of instruction from class 1,” Ali says. The PTU also says the Punjab government is spending billions of rupees on Directorate of Staff Development, Punjab Examination Commission and Punjab Monitoring and Implementation Unit but without any positive outcome. Meanwhile, another PTU group led by Hafiz Ghulam Mohiuddin has surfaced that held a meeting with the school education department’s additional and deputy secretaries and discussed teachers’ problems. The department representatives assured the PTU delegation teachers’ problems would be resolved in consultation with Mr Mohiuddin. THE Punjab government is planning to amend the Cadet Colleges Act 1960 to make their administrative rules and regulations compatible with modern demands. The government is planning reconstitution of cadet colleges’ boards of governors (BoGs) and proposing they have 11 members comprising ex- officio members – provincial education minister; secretaries of schools and finance; commissioners of divisions and district coordination officers of the districts concerned; a representative of the General Officer Commanding and principal (secretary to the BoG) of the cadet college concerned. Four non-official members will be appointed for three years by the Punjab governor on the advice of the chief minister. A few days ago, Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan while chairing a meeting with officials concerned announced the government will continue providing Rs8.3 million as annual grant-in-aid to cadet colleges in Pasrur, Okara and Choa Seden Shah. Under the new law, only BoGs will approve salaries and annual increments of college teachers on the pattern of basic pay scales of the government. While the Punjab government is deliberating giving Punjab University’s 50-kanal land to Daewoo Bus Company on a 30-year lease to generate funds, the meeting decided that a special plan will be evolved for best use of the land adjacent to boundary wall of these cadet colleges spreading over 100 acres for enabling them to bear their own expenses. THE Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF) last week distributed Rs1.5 million scholarships to 23 postgraduate students of Government College University (GCU). PEEF Senior Manager Scholarships Naveed Akber Cheema said the fund’s procedure of distribution was transparent and that was why several international institutes were signing accords with it. GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleequr Rahman said the scholarships will help students continue their studies without financial hurdles. “The GCU is the only educational institution which has its own endowment fund trust and it also annually disburses scholarships worth millions of rupees among students from its own budget,” he added.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 10:18:17 +0000
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