ISLAMABAD: Daily-wage teachers working for the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) have decided to take to the streets once more to pressure the government to regularise them.

Around 2,000 daily-wage teaching and non-teaching staff have been working at FDE schools and colleges for years while the directorate and the Ministry of Education have yet to decide whether to regularise them.

The teachers said that the Islamabad High Court had ruled in their favour last year, but the FDE and the ministry had appealed the ruling in the Supreme Court instead of implementing it.

The matter of regularising daily-wage teachers has been a chronic one for the FDE, as the teachers are not being regularised or laid off, causing problems for both parties.

Sources in the FDE said teachers who have produced good results for years deserve to be regularised because they have spent many years in schools and colleges. They say those whose performance is not satisfactory should be laid off.

“But keeping quiet on this serious issue is not the solution. The FDE and education ministry will have to come up with a resolution,” an official said.

He added that the FDE could not be the one to decide; the federal government will have to make a decision to resolve the issue for good. FDE spokesperson Yasir Chattha said the matter is currently sub judice and the directorate will implement whatever the SC decides.

Perturbed by the government’s attitude, the teachers on Sunday announced a protest in front of the National Press Club on Friday to pressure the federal government.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2019