RAWALPINDI, Nov 11: The teachers of schools and colleges continued with their protests against the proposed educational reforms on Monday.

However, in a break from the past, the teachers and professors restricted their class boycott to only one period. They fastened black straps around their arms and passed resolutions against the boards of governors and arranged gatherings and protest marches inside their institutions.

In their speeches, the union leaders criticized the proposal of forming a BoG to run educational institutions and hospitals. Teachers and professors are the builders of nations and did not wish to hold protests, but they had been compelled by the authorities to do so, they said.

The union leaders also took an oath from teachers that they would continue their protests till the proposed BoGs were withdrawn. They also asked the newly-elected members of the national and provincial assembles to help stop anti-education policies of the incumbent authorities.

Dilating on the disadvantages of the BoGs, the union leaders said the future of students as well as teachers would be insecure if the proposed reforms were implemented. The members of the BoG will be taken mostly from the trader community who, it is feared, would turn educational institutions into business concerns and thus close the doors of education on the poor, the PPLA secretary-general, Rauf Ahmad Shah, said.

He said those teachers including the head of the institution concerned who are not liked by the board members would be made a target by the latter. They would not be allowed to even explain their position, as had happened a few days ago with the medical superintendent of the Holy Family Hospital, Dr Nisar Cheema, he added.