July 27, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 23, 1429

RAWALPINDI, July 26: School teachers have expressed concern over the decision of Punjab education department withholding promotion of some 150 teachers to the next grade in accordance with a notification and threatened to launch protest if their colleagues were not promoted, it has been learnt.

Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) Rawalpindi Chapter President Dr Saghir Alam on Saturday told Dawn that the district promotion committee had declared the appointments of 150 English teachers as doubtful thus barring their promotion to next grade.

The representative of the teachers said that the school teachers, after a long struggle, earned the up-gradation last September and the Punjab government had issued a notification in this regard setting up a district promotion committee to finalise a list of the teachers on seniority basis.

He said some 185 English teachers, majority of them female, were inducted in the grade 14 in 1995 in Rawalpindi with the conditions that they would not be transferred or regularised.

The government on the insistence of the teachers announced to regularise their services and considered them for the promotions, the PTU president said.

The promotion committee has yet to finalise the names of the teachers for the promotions but it has set aside the case of 150 teachers who will not be considered for promotions as they have switched over to other schools violating the terms of their appointments.

The representative of the teacher, who has also issued a press release in this regard, said no teacher could leave the school of her appointment without the consent of the education department. The department has first allowed them to move to the schools of their choice and now is bent upon stopping not only their promotions but also initiating inquiries against them for violations.

He said he met the executive district officer (EDO) education and district coordination officer (DCO) and asked them to look into the matter and the officials assured him that the teachers would be promoted as per the notification but the committee had instead withheld their promotion.

When the EDO education was contacted for his comment he expressed his ignorance and said the relevant district officer (DO) could better explain the issue. The DO female could not be contacted on the official phone as she was not available in her office.