ISLAMABAD: Basic Education Community School (BECS) teachers continued their protest in D-Chowk despite the rain.

The protestors said they will not call off the strike till their services are regularised.

“Today is World Human Rights Day and we are forced to be on the road on this day,” said a protesting teacher from Okara, Nazia Andleeb.

Another protestor, Mohammad Hanif, who said he has three masters’ degrees, said BECS teachers play an important role in the promotion of education in the far flung areas.

The protestors said they get paid Rs8,000 a month, half the minimum wage, and that they have not even been paid this salary the last eight months.

“We are not protesting for a raise in salaries, we are only demanding that our services be regularised,” said Muzahir Hussain, who is leading the protest.

Mr Hussain said the police manhandled the teachers on Monday to stop them from advancing towards Parliament House.

Due to the protest, city administration has blocked Jinnah Avenue as well as D-Chock to vehicles and pedestrians.

BECS is a subsidiary of the education ministry and has 12,000 informal schools across the country, most of which have one teacher for one school and the incumbent government wants to use them to make its drive for bringing out of school children into schools a success.

Education ministry spokesperson, Joint Education Adviser Rafiq Tahir told Dawn the ministry is making efforts to address all the genuine issues of the protestors and to convince them to call off the strike.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2018