With protests for increase in teachers’ salaries and other incentives continuing on the fifth day, the district education officer (DEO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak has suspended 800 primary school teachers.
Teachers have been protesting since Tuesday outside Peshawar’s Jinnah Park and have been firm in continuing their strikes until the fulfilment of their demands. They have also demanded that the government decides against privatisation of primary schools in the province.
“We don’t want to go on strike or protest, but we have no other options left,” All Teachers Association (ATA) Haripur President Akhtar Nawaz told media outlets on Friday.
“The demand for upgradation of teachers’ pay scale was accepted during the previous government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI], but it has not been implemented yet,” Nawaz complained.
He said they were also demanding the provincial government awarded permanent status to teachers selected on the basis of a contract in 2022.
President of the All Primary Schools Teachers Association (APSTA) Azizullah Khan stated, “On the pretext of pension reforms, the provincial government has cut down several allowances from the pension, which we were previously entitled to.”
Earlier, KP Financial Advisor Muzammil Aslam had warned protesting teachers by saying that those involved in the protest would face pay cuts.
Responding to teachers’ demand for pay scale upgradation, he said that it was impossible to upgrade the status of 175,000 teachers at the same time.