October 05, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 22, 1428

RAWALPINDI, Oct 4: Lecturers of Rawalpindi division’s colleges will observe the Salam Teachers Day on Friday as black day as the government has not promoted them to the next grade for over the last two decades.

According to a press release issued by the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) here on Thursday, the prime minister had promised on the last Salam Teachers day to promote the college teachers to next scale but after one year, the promise remained unfulfilled.

The college teachers have been serving in the 17th grade for the last 20 years but the government is unmoved to take any step for their promotion, the press release said. The nonchalant attitude of the government is creating unrest among the teaches which is also affecting the quality of education in the educational institutions, it said The government has upgraded the university and even the school teachers but it was treating discriminately to the college lecturers, said PPLA Rawalpindi division president Muhammad Ilyas Qureshi.

The lecturers have decided to take the classes with black ribbons around their arms and hold protest meetings to mark October 5 as black day, he added.

Mr Qureshi said that more than 500 college lecturers in Pindi division were in the 17th grade since 1987 waiting for the promotion but some subject specialists inducted in 1990s were in grade 19.

The Punjab government was least interested in the development of colleges as they even lacked in science apparatus for the students.

Our Correspondent from Taxila adds: The World Salam Teachers day with the slogan of quality teachers for quality education and focus on improving the working conditions for teachers is being marked today, but about 77 female teachers serving in the six schools of the city and Wah Cantonment are deprived of even basic working facilities, leave aside incentives and perks.

Talking to reporters, the teachers said the government was not paying any heed to their plight and demanded for revision as well as improvement of their service structure, provision of teaching allowance and the promotion facility and other benefits.

They said their fellow teachers under the Punjab education department and federal government educational intuitions were enjoying better facilities but no attention was being paid to their condition.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on the last World Teachers day had announced teaching allowance for the all teachers of the public sector worth Rs1,000 with the qualification of MA/ M.Ed, Rs700 with BA/ B.Ed and Rs500 with FA/ CT.

The teachers said they were serving in the schools under Ministry of Defence but denied to the allowance announced by the prime minister one year ago. “We are working in the same scale for the last 11 years and denied to promotion,” the teachers said, adding they had brought the attention of relevant authorities to their plight but so far no action had been taken.