PESHAWAR: Hundreds of teachers from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held a protest rally in the provincial capital on Thursday to press the government for accepting their demands, including service structure. The rally caused a traffic jam on major city roads for hours, creating problems for the motorists and residents.

The teachers are demanding service structure based on timescale, discontinuation of school-based appointments, regularisation of teachers hired through National Testing Service (NTS), putting an end to ad hoc hiring as well as shortlisting through NTS and stopping the Independent Monitoring Unit from meddling in the schools’ affairs.

The protest was arranged by All Teachers Coordination Council (ATCC), a joint body of all primary, middle and high school teachers from across the province.

A large number of teachers from across the province earlier gathered at the Government Hasnian Shaheed Higher Secondary School, Peshawar City, which was located next to the directorate of elementary and secondary education on the GT Road. From there, hundreds of the protesting teachers walked to the Suray Pul in front of the provincial assembly and thronged to nearby roads connecting the city with cantonment and the University Road and blocked them for several hours.

Haseebullah, a protester, told this scribe that service structure was their basic demand. He said that all the provinces other than KP were following timescale system for promotion from one grade to another where teachers were automatically promoted after remaining in a specific grade for a specific period of time.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2017