Despite warning
PESHAWAR
Government Primary School Teachers protest has continued in Peshawar for a third day despite warning from the authorities.
The teachers from across the province gathered at the historic Jinnah Park, near to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly building, and staged a sit-in there.
On Thursday, the first day of protest, the teacher community clashed with the provincial capitol police. In an attempt to disperse the protesters, police resorted to severe baton charges and used indiscriminate teargas shelling.
Demonstrators, under the banner of All Primary Teachers Association (APTA), ignored the provincial government’s warning that teachers should avoid gatherings in Peshawar and back to their respective schools for teaching.
Following the clash, a number of policemen were injured in stone pelting allegedly by the protesting teachers.
The protesters also damaged some of the media houses’ vehicles.
It is pertinent to mention here that the teachers have also announced complete boycott from classes across the province against the use of force against them by the police outside the provincial assembly building.
Though the police have detained 13 protesters after lodging an FIR, the teachers have refused to talk with the authorities and continued their protest to press the government to meet their demands.
The president of the APTA, Azizullah Khan, told reporters that “we are demanding upgradation of the Primary School Teacher (PST) post from BPS-12 to BPS-15 and promotion for senior teachers with restoration of allowances granted to them by the education department in 2011 and 2015.”
The association also called for a change in the current service structure of PST and the promotion of head-teacher to Grade 16 and 17.
Sources in the elementary and secondary education department claimed that the provincial government was not ready to accept the demands of the protesting teachers after clashing with the police outside the provincial assembly on the first day of protest.
Despite the warning, baton charge, teargas shelling, and arrest, the teachers have continued their sit-in the provincial capital and continued their protest.
At present, most of the primary schools of the government sector in the province are closed for learning activities.
On Saturday, the provincial government deployed scores of police personnel in the nearby Jinnah Park, Higher Secondary School No1 and outside the KP Assembly building.
Police told reporters that the protesters would not be allowed to march on the Khyber Road where they clashed with teachers.
The leadership of various political parties has criticized the provincial government for the mistreatment meted out to primary school teachers when they were holding peaceful rallies for their longstanding demands.
ANP leader and lawmaker in KP Assembly Sardar Hussain Babik, who visited the protester teachers sit-in, said the baton charge on teachers had exposed the government’s policy on education.
