FAISALABAD: Teachers of the Faisalabad Divisional Public School (DPS) and College demand pay scales on a par with their Lahore DPS colleagues.

To get attention of the authorities, teachers have started wearing black armbands and sitting in a protest camp outside the main campus building after the school time.

Principal Shahid Mahmood told Dawn that spade work was under way and recommendations would be put up to the board of governors (BoGs) in the next meeting.

Teachers said they would continue protest till the acceptance of their ‘genuine and legal’ demands.

They said they had sent various applications to the head of the institute and the Faisalabad commissioner, also the BoGs president, that both DPS of Faisalabad and Lahore were established simultaneously in 1963. Lahore DPS teachers, however, were enjoying a better service structure with proper pay scales, a promotion criteria and medical and pension facilities. These terms were applicable to the Faisalabad DPS staff.

They said the administration had enhanced fee and charged students under various heads such as building funds, bills, miscellaneous funds, printing charges, sports funds and services charges.

Teachers said majority of them had spent their career in the institution and established its high repute. Some of the staff members even refused government jobs only for their commitment to the DPS. In return, their pay scales had not bee revised since 2015 in accordance with the government pay scale.On Thursday, teachers also staged a sit-in by flashing placards inscribed with their demands.

They said they had not boycotted classes for they did not want waste students’ time. The administration was not serious with the future of students by denying revised pay scale and appropriate health and other facilities to teachers.

They demanded that the commissioner look into the issue.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2017