May 9, 2005	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1426

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SWABI, May 8: The Subject Specialists Union (SSU) has supported a call given by All Pakistan Teachers Association (APTA) to boycott classes from May 20 if the government fails to meet their demands. A decision to this effect was taken by the union at a meeting on Sunday. SSU president Pervez Khan, vice president Rahim Zada and Shujat Ali attended the meeting.

They said teachers were architects of the nation but the government had always ignored them. They have been facing various problems but no practical step has been taken to solve them.

They urged the government to hold talks with teachers to resolve the issues before the begining of the boycott of classes because that would affect students’ study during the precious pre-summer vacation time.

Mr Pervez said the government should give advance increment to subject specialists on their completing M. Phil, increase their house rent according to the present pay scale, stop deducting group-insurance contributions from their salaries and increase their medical allowance. He said that librarians and DPE (Diploma in Physical Education) teachers should be given grade 17 and they should be included in the seniority list of subject specialists.

The union also demanded that intermediate classes should not be taken in colleges. It was decided in 1979 not to hold inter classes in colleges but enforcement of this decision is still awaited, Mr Pervez said and added: “I don’t know what happened to the concerned officials and why they are delaying implementation of this decision”.

Subject specialists, he said, should be allowed to contest BISE election like senior English teachers and the government should provide them necessary lab-instruments to enable them to conduct scientific experiments. He said without experiments it was difficult to impart knowledge to students.

The SSU’s Vice-President Rahim Zada urged the government to appoint subject specialists of Urdu and Pashto to all most 110 posts lying vacant in the NWFP. He said keeping in view the increasing number of students, the number of higher secondary schools in district Swabi should be increased.