LANDI KOTAL: The local chapter of All Teachers Association, Khyber Agency, held a protest demonstration to express its anguish over the persistent delay in upgradation of scales of government teachers in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Speaking on the occasion, ATA president Sharifullah Afridi said that their colleagues in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had long been upgraded to upper scales while the Fata Secretariat continued to deny the same to tribal teachers who were performing their duties in thousands of government schools in adverse circumstances.

“Ignoring tribal teachers without any valid reason and denying them their basic legal right is a discriminatory act of the officials of Fata Secretariat,” Mr Afridi said amid sloganeering by the protesting teachers.

He said that the delay in implementation of the policy to upgrade scales of teachers in Fata had caused unrest among them as they were made to feel inferior to their colleagues in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He reminded the officials concerned that better pay scales was their legal and constitutional right and said that they would not rest until their demand was fulfilled. 

Bahadur Khan, a senior teacher, demanded of the Fata education department to fill all the vacant posts in Landi Kotal schools, appoint science teachers where their posts were vacant and replace the non-local assistant agency education officer with a senior local teacher.

The teachers warned of a Fata-wide protest campaign if their demands were not met forthwith.

Published in Dawn March 16th , 2015

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