CHINIOT: The district education authority has issued show-cause notices to 93 teachers across the district for not performing anti-dengue activities.

The notices issued by the chief executive officer (CEO) of the authority stated that the situation was tantamount to inefficiency and lack of interest of the teachers in the official duties.

The heads of schools and assistant education officers of centres concerned were also asked to meet the CEO on March 11 at the Government High School Chiniot along with a written explanation as to why the teachers had failed to upload the pictures of anti-dengue activities on the web portal on 3rd, 4th and 5th March, 2022.

In case of non-compliance, the competent authority had been directed to initiate strict action against the teachers, the letter added.

The Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) criticised action of the education authority, including issuance of the notices to teachers and calling the heads of the schools for an explanation.

Safdar Siraj, the vice-president of the union, said the teachers were hired for teaching only but it was unfortunate that they were forced to get involved in non-teaching activities like the anti-dengue drives.

He said a high school teacher had to perform 20 anti-dengue activities per day and he/she had to upload the pictures of every activity on a daily basis without break even on Sundays or other gazetted holidays.

He suggested the task should be given to supervisory officers like assistant education officers and the teachers should be allowed to focus on teaching.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2022