May 27, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 26: Following an assurance by District Coordination Officer (DCO) Jamal Mustafa Syed, the local chapter of the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) on Monday withdrew their protest call regarding the complete implementation of a Punjab government’s notification about the upgradation of the scales of school teachers.

The PTU had earlier called for a demonstration outside the DCO offices on June 6 as the notification issued in September had not been implemented in totality and the teachers had not been promoted.

But on Monday, a PTU delegation led by Dr Saghir Alam Chaudhry met the DCO and postponed their demonstration after Executive District Officer (EDO) Education Chaudhry Mohammad Yusuf assured that the notification would be implemented fully till June 5.

The teachers had resented the delay and incomplete implementation of the notification that assured school-level teachers of promotion into next scale from September 1, 2007.

Instead of promoting all teachers on seniority basis, the district education department had promoted a small number of teachers as per their Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs), Dr Chaudhry told Dawn.

He said the department maintained that majority of the teachers had incomplete ACRs, ignoring the fact that it was a fault on their part as the department was responsible for completing the reports.

According to the notification based on seniority, 50 per cent primary school teachers in the Punjab will remain in the basic pay scale (BPS) 7, while 34 per cent would be promoted to BPS-9, 15 percent to BPS-11 and one per cent to BPS-12.

As far as elementary school teachers are concerned, 50 per cent remain in BPS-9, 34 per cent will move into BPS-12 and one per cent into BPS-15. Whereas 50 per cent of the English teachers of the elementary cadre will be promoted in BPS-14 and the rest in BPS-15.

About the secondary school teachers, it has been decided that 50 per cent of them will remain in BPS-16, 35 per cent go to BPS-17 and rest of 15 per cent will be promoted to BPS-18.

The notification also approved the conversion of pay package of all educators into corresponding pay scale. Elementary school educators will have BPS-9, senior elementary BPS-14 and secondary educators BPS-16. Special increments have also been given to science and mathematics teachers.

Principals of the schools will get enhancement in their monthly charge allowances and teachers working in small cities and far-flung areas will get mobility allowance. The government also sanctioned qualification allowance for the highly qualified teachers.

According to a senior school teacher, no extra benefit, except science teachers’ allowance and charge allowance, had been promised by the government.

He said the Punjab government allocated Rs3.75 billion for the uplift of the teachers but the budget had not been transferred to the district level, causing delay and resentment among the teachers’ community.

Teachers got the promised benefits after a long and difficult struggle and will not hesitate to agitate if they are not provided with their due rights, Saghir Alam warned.