KARAK: Teachers of public sector schools have demanded an end to political interference in the affairs of the education department to show better results.

They were speaking at a training workshop organised by the Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) here on Saturday.

The speakers also called for making teachers accountable for their primary job of teaching to improve quality of education. They said the political interference in education department had paralysed its functioning. They also demanded that teachers be freed from ‘clutches’ of politicians.

The participants demanded that the tenure policy should be strictly observed in the education department to remove fears of teachers about untimely transfers. The teachers said the appointments to primary schools should be made on merit rather than under the union council policy to bring forward the talented teachers through open competition.

The teachers, both male and female, complained about lack of interest by parents in schools’ affairs, and sought their motivation through the parent-teacher councils. They also complained about shortage of teachers in educational institutions.

The speakers said as the responsibilities of primary school head teachers had increased manifold in the new environment they should be provided administrative training to help them better cope with the situation. They also demanded increase in the head teacher allowance.

The teachers demanded that pattern of NTS test for primary schoolteachers should be changed from being general to subject-oriented. The district coordinator of CGPA resolved that the organisation would forward the suggestions of the teachers to the provincial government for policymaking.

LABOURERS INJURED: Three labourers were critically injured when the roof of an under-construction building collapsed in Andaki Banda area of Karak tehsil.

Eyewitnesses identified the labourers as Sarwar Khan, Sabireen and Dilawar Khan, residents of the same area.

The local residents retrieved the injured from the rubble and shifted them to a private clinic. However, two of them were referred to a major hospital in Peshawar in precarious condition.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2015

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