LAHORE, Oct 7: Society needs to free teachers from fear and offer them due respect, trust and protection to help them become agents for its transformation.

This was stated by Dr Arifa Syeda, professor at the Forman Christian College, in her address at an event organised by Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in connection with the World Teachers Day at a local hotel here on Monday.

Dr Syeda urged the teachers to continue enhancing their knowledge to initiate a dialogue in classrooms and become the voice of society’s conscience. She termed the teachers magicians who could bring forth the students’ hidden talent. She also called for setting standards to improve education quality.

Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood said the trends had changed and now teachers’ promotions had been linked to their performance rather than mere seniority. He said the government was providing all the missing facilities in girls’ schools in Multan, Bahawalpur and DG Khan divisions to improve girls education.

The education minister said the Punjab government had constituted a committee of educationists to advise the government on education related matters. He expressed surprise at the protest by teachers against the setting up of District Education Authorities (DEAs).

ITA Director Programmes Dr Baela Raza Jamil said the teachers’ unions were important platforms and the government should take the stakeholders into confidence before introducing new policies and taking other key decisions. She said over 600,000 teachers in Punjab were members of the teachers’ unions.

Dr Baela said substandard teaching was often cited as being main cause of poor schooling quality in the developing world. She said teachers and students’ attendance had improved in Punjab but the learning levels had not shown any significant change. She said the Right to Education Bill was ready with the government but it had neither been shared with the public nor was tabled in the Punjab Assembly.

Lahore School of Economics Dean Dr Shahid Siddiqui said regretted that teachers’ independence was continuously being suppressed in the last three decades that had made education a product, students customers and teachers merely salesmen.

Headmasters Association Punjab President Rasheed Ahmad Bhatti said the government was involving politics in education through the setting up of DEAs.

Lahore College for Women University Vice-Chancellor Dr Sabiha Mansoor, JICA project director Chiho Ohashi, Unesco’s Umer Zaman, NCHD Director (Operations) Punjab Abdul Basit, IDEAS Research Associate Bisma Khan and SST Teachers Union Punjab President Rana Atta Muhammad also spoke.