HYDERABAD: Activists of Government Secondary Tea­chers Association (GS­TA), who took to the streets in Hyderabad and Badin on Saturday, rejected the creation of “management cadre” in the province’s public education system and warned if the new cadre was not abolished they would boycott examinations.

In Hyderabad, secondary schoolteachers including a large number of women brought out a large rally. The participants raised slogans against the creation of management cadre and for the acceptance of their demands as they marched from Hyder Chowk to local press club.

GSTA leaders Mohammad Ashraf Khaskheli, Ms Fark­handa Rajput, Munir Halepoto and Abdul Qay­oom Shaikh said they rejected the new cadre as they believed it would be tantamount to teachers’ economic murder. The management cadre would destroy Sindh’s education, they warned.

They said that teachers were protesting against the decision across Sindh and if their demands were not accepted they would boycott examinations in the first phase and then hold protest march outside Chief Minister House in Karachi on March 28. If any unpleasant incident took place the government would be responsible for consequences, they said.

They called for the abolition of the management cadre and said that seniority should be given to teachers who had passed examinations conducted by IBA, NTS and Iqra University and urged the government to pay salaries to teachers appointed in 2012.

BADIN: Teaching staff boycotted educational activities in all schools across the district on a call for protest given by GSTA’s Badin chapter against the introduction of management cadre by the provincial government.

The teachers from government high schools and middle schools of Badin, Golarchi, Tando Bago, Matli and Talhar towns gathered at Allahwala Chowk in Badin and staged a march which culminated in a demonstration in front of Aiwan-i-Sahafat.

GSTA Badin president Mohammad Siddique Soomro, Apa Hamida Kha­skheli, Najam Jamali, Faiz Udhejo, Ali Mohammad Rind and others said that the government had notified management cadre officers in the education department and declared that headmasters of government schools would now be appointed through Sindh Public Service Commission.

They said that the policy was not practicable as it was against fundamental rights of teachers who had been denied the right to promotions. The present Pakistan Peoples Party government wanted to put administrative control of educational institutions in the hands of unskilled and inexperienced people, they said.

They said that instead of promoting teachers to the posts of headmaster and awarding them timescale the provincial government dragged on the issue for years and then came up with the new cadre to deny teachers their right.

They demanded that grade 20 be given to high school teachers (HSTs) as per timescale, junior school teachers be promoted to HST positions, and the new cadre be abolished immediately.

They said that teachers were forced to take to the streets because of government’s disdainful policies and warned they would boycott exams and then besiege the CM House if their demands were not met.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2019