KARACHI, Jan 23: On the first day of a two-month protest campaign announced by the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association, college and university teachers observed a ‘black day’ across the province on Friday against certain policies of the education department and to put pressure on the government for acceptance of their demands.

SPLA spokesman Prof Iftikhar Mohammad Aazmi said the strike was observed against what he described as the negative attitude of the education department’s officials, who were still reluctant to solve problems of teachers.

He said teachers had pinned hope on the democratic government for resolution of the issues being faced by the teaching community but they were disappointed.

He noted that teachers passed several resolutions in support of their demands, but the government failed to pay attention to their grievances. That forced the teachers to take to the streets, he said.

The spokesman also criticised the provincial education minister for a statement attributed to him against the teaching community.

According to him, the education minister had said that teachers were involved in politics on the pretext of their demands.

Prof Aazmi warned that they might have to broaden their struggle to other parts of the country if their problems were not solved soon, adding that teachers from Karachi to Kashmore were united in support of their demands.

He further said that conspiracies that were hatched to create differences among them and efforts to fail their movement could not succeed.—PPI