LAHORE
Hundreds of teachers of Basic Education Community School (BECS) on Monday held a protest in front of Assembly Hall crossing here in the provincial capital for the fulfillment of their demands.
A large number of male and female teachers, who came from various far-flung cities and villages from across the province, held a sit-in and protest, urging the government to regularize their services and fix their salaries under the provincial labour laws.
The protesters, holding placards and banners, chanted slogans against the government and Literacy Department. They said they would not call off their strike till the education ministry issues their regularization orders.
It is to be noted that BECS was the subsidiary of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training and had 12,000 informal schools across the country, most of which had one teacher for one school.
After the 18th amendments, all other provinces, including Sindh, KPK and Blochistan, have regularized BECS teachers of their province under the education department but Punjab is refusing to do so, stated Mrs. Rabia Jameel, who is also the BECS teacher.
Rabia Jabeel said that even after serving for more than two decades, their services are yet to be regularized. She said they are paid Rs8,000 per month, which is not even the half of the minimum wage set by the provincial government.
She said BESC is an important organisation and its issues should be resolved on a priority basis or the government’s drive for out of school children will suffer.
The protesters said that BESC teachers have been playing an important role in improving the literacy rate in the country but are not getting due attention from the government.
They said that the teachers associated with the programme have been faced with inconsistency for the last many years and they are pushing the government to regularise them.
The protesters said that more teachers from across the province would join the protest on Tuesday for redressal of their demands.
The protesters held a meeting with the education ministry officials but will not call off the strike till they get regularisation orders, they warned.
