LAHORE: The government has deducted conveyance allowance of thousands of teachers due to closure of educational institutions during the third wave of Covid-19.

However, the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) have protested over deduction of conveyance allowance from pay and demanded its reversal.

The Punjab School Education Department (SED) deducted Rs6,500 from the salaries of STs, Rs7,500 from ESTs, and Rs7,442 from PSTs.

The PTU office-bearers were of the view that the deduction from salaries was carried out in the name of closure of schools during the third coronavirus wave.

They said the government had closed the institutions for students but the teachers did not remain completely absent from schools.

They said they were called to attend the schools on several occasions and they were assigned other duties. “As the teachers have attended the schools they shall also be given conveyance allowance,” one of the teachers said.

He said the teachers would launch a protest campaign in the province if the deduction of the allowance was not reversed.

Meanwhile, the SED announced action against the public sector teachers teaching in private schools and academies of the province.

The department would start inspection and operation against the teachers running private academies and teaching in private educational institutions from Nov 1.

The teachers were also directed to submit an affidavit about not teaching in any private academy or school to heads of the schools till Oct 31.

The department would also take action against the teachers who failed or did not submit their affidavits to the heads of their institutions.

The department had proposed stoppage of two-year annual increments of the teachers found guilty of teaching in private schools and running academies.

The step was taken over poor results of the government schools in intermediate and secondary education.

Earlier, the department had also issued warnings to the teachers to stop teaching in private schools and academies.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2021