September 10, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 09, 1429

MIANWALI, Sept 9: Teachers continued strike against the executive district officer for education for the second day, providing another ‘rest’ day to the students of the state-run educational institutions.

Meanwhile, the teachers’ association which had been protesting policies of the education authorities faced another blow when the EDO transferred some of the teachers.

EDO (Education) Mushtaq Husain Khan Baloch told newsmen at his office that political intervention and blackmailing by teachers had become a challenge for the department. “It is the only district in Punjab where teachers are being promoted with fake degrees and the administration succumbs to pressures from various quarters.”

Mr Baloch said he had recently transferred and posted 51 SSTs as headmasters/headmistresses at elementary schools at different places in the district on the instructions of the Punjab Secretary Education (Schools) by selecting one junior SST from each high school. The politicians and teacher-leaders were demanding cancellation of transfers of their favourite teachers, he said.

He said he had recommended admission of some students to the government comprehensive and central model schools by following the Punjab government instructions and the teachers had got the schools closed. He said the schools had become political arenas because of the abundance of teacher-leaders.

The teachers’ organisations resolved to continue their strike till the transfer of the EDO from Mianwali, who they claimed had overcrowded the best institutes here.