LAHORE, Sept 16: Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam of the Lahore High Court on Friday sought within two weeks comments from the Punjab government on the abolition of the learning coordinators scheme. The court issued notice to the provincial government in the proceedings of a writ petition through which Ghulam Shabbir and Munir Husain had submitted that the government had abolished the learning coordinators scheme that started in 1990 for the promotion of literacy in rural and remote areas.

The writ petition, moved on behalf of 145 coordinators across the Punjab, stated that the government had launched the project to give incentives to the people in rural areas to learn and educate their children.

Teachers from primary schools, serving in BPS-7 were involved in the literacy promotion drive and given BPS-11.

According to the petition, moved through Advocate M.D. Tahir, the government had on July 5 this year withdrawn the notification of the literacy promotion scheme as a result of which it stood abolished.

The teachers inducted in the scheme were now being directed by the education department to revert to their primary schools or the nearest educational institution.

Advocate Tahir submitted that dispensing with the services of teachers in the literacy promotion was unlawful as ordained by the Supreme Court in a decision given in 1969, which said a concession once given could not be withdrawn.