HYDERABAD, Nov 25: Hundreds of teachers including a large number of women teachers blocked Risala road opposite circular building, where teachers’ tests were being conducted, for five hours here on Sunday.

They were protesting against the conduct of tests of M.Ed and B.Ed degree holding teachers for advance increment.

They also thronged the gate of the government secondary school opposite circular building where the tests were scheduled to be held.

They did not allow any teacher to enter the school building except those who had earlier sneaked into the school to appear in the test.

Police including horse riding police tried to stop the onslaught of the teachers but failed to stem the tide.

In the melee one women teacher Shahnaz Leghari received stick injury on her forearm while some angry teachers also hurled stones at the police.

The teachers raised full-throated slogans against the secretary education and vowed to continue the struggle till the secretary was removed.

Speaking to the charged crowd from the boundary wall of the school, the district president of Government Secondary Teachers Association, Jan Mohammad I. Parhiar, and Kazi Aminuddin announced that the schools in the interior of Sindh will remain locked up for an indefinite period.

They added that the schools will be re-opened after the secretary education was removed.

Two unarmed stern looking army Jawans posted at the side door of the school gate did not allow the protesters to enter the school where the test was in progress.

However, the protesting teachers claimed that only a handful of teachers had been forced by the administration to appear in the test.

This correspondent, after the test was over, managed to sneak in the school through a back door and found quite a few army officials and invigilators present there with the Sindh additional secretary education Prof Anwar Ahmedzai.

Talking to Dawn, the additional secretary said that 320 B.Ed and 75 M.Ed teachers from Hyderabad division had registered themselves for appearing in today’s test.

He said despite harassment by vested interests and road block, 108 B.Ed and 17 M.Ed candidates had appeared in the test.

He said the test of remaining candidates will be held after three months.

He made it clear that B.Ed and M.Ed increments will be given from retrospective effect, i.e. the date of passing of the B.Ed and M.Ed examinations, and not from the date of the passing of the test.

He further said that those who were already receiving the said increments will not be affected.

He said that the test had become necessary to improve the quality of education and root out copy culture.

He said that the teaching standard had been badly affected after some institutions started issuing B.Ed and M.Ed degrees under their off-campus programmes. He maintained that under these programmes it had not been mandatory for teachers to attend classes regularly.

Mr Ahmedzai said that this practice had badly affected the standard of teaching and necessitated the holding of teachers’ tests.

He said that to improve quality of education, were now being recruited through the Sindh Public Service Commission.