HYDERABAD, May 3: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association have announced that college teachers would hold a demonstration outside the press club here on May 5 to press for the acceptance of their demands. Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Tuesday, Hyderabad region SPLA president Prof Khadim Hussain Khoso, Prof Mashooq Baloch, Prof Sher Khan Selero, Prof Abdullah Mallah, Prof Mehrunnisa Larik and others regretted that problems of teachers were not being resolved.

They said the association was observing the current year as the year of education with a view to improving the quality of education, increasing admissions and literacy ratio and mobilizing all its resources for promotion of education at primary and secondary level.

They observed that the wrong mechanism of promotions affected hundreds of teachers and some of them even retired before they were given promotion. They demanded that a timeframe should be fixed for grant of promotions. They said notifications of promotions in grade 18, 19 and 20 under the four-tier formula, and in respect of directors of physical education and librarians according to the agreed 33 per cent formula be issued.

They demanded that salaries of teachers should be raised by 100 per cent in the next budget and house rent, medical allowance and conveyance allowance should be sanctioned at 60 per cent, 30 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. They further demanded that the teachers should be exempted from payment of income tax.

The SPLA leaders also complained about what they called the indifferent attitude of educational boards and universities.

Opposing privatization of educational institutions, they demanded that the notification about denationalization of the Saint Patrick College and the Saint Joseph College should be withdrawn.

COMPUTER TRAINING: University of Sindh Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui on Tuesday inaugurated a two-week computer training programme organized by the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences for newly-inducted teachers of various institutes and departments of the university at the Allama I. I. Kazi campus in Jamshoro.