LAHORE: Hundreds of contract teachers on Wednesday launched protest against the government for not awarding them permanent job status.

They gathered outside Civil Secretariat and blocked Lower Mall and remained outside the secretariat for six hours at the call of the Punjab Government Schools Senior Staff Association. Head masters, subject specialists and deputy district education officers were present.

Association president Hafiz Abdul Nasir said that they would boycott classes if their demand was not accepted. He said the second round of protests would start after Aug 27 and they would force the government to give them regular status as they had been on contract since 2012.

Protesters chanted slogans against the government and flashed banners and placards inscribed with slogans in their support.

They said Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas was running the matters of the ministry on social media.A delegation of Government Schools Association of Computer Science, led by president Kashif Shehzad Chaudhry, also joined the protest.

Mr Chaudhry said that teachers were also struggling to get promotion, regularisation of their jobs and computer allowance.

He said the government was not addressing the problems of the teachers and already had deducted the education budget.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2019