December 21, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1427

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RAWALPINDI, Dec 20: The city chapter of All Pakistan Teachers Association on Wednesday went on two-day hunger strike to press the government for solution to the problems faced by the teachers community.

The strike is part of country-wide agitation to draw attention of the government to various problems of the teachers.

Talking to Dawn, president of Punjab Teachers Union, Rawalpindi, Sagheer Alam said that the federal government had promised to give teaching allowance to the teachers and revise their scale but nothing has been done in this regard. He said that except for Punjab all the three provinces and federal government were giving teaching allowance.

Sagheer Alam said that educators salaries were too low to meet their basic needs. He demanded regularisation of their services and end to appointments of teachers on contract. He also demanded additional allowance for the teachers working in the hilly areas. He also sought solution to the problems of municipal teachers on priority basis.

He asked the government to restore the previous perks of teachers like the selection grade, move-overs and increments. His demands also include end to political and NGO’S interference in affairs of educational institutions.

Sagheer Alam said that 17 agencies were monitoring the performance of teachers and another evaluation agency consisting of 8000 retired army personnel was in the field since September 1, adding that the mushrooming of monitoring agencies were creating more problems for the teachers.

Sagheer Alam said that the teachers community was the most respected segment of the society in any civilised country but here the situation was opposite.