HYDERABAD: A large number of teachers staged a sit-in here on Thursday under the banner of Government Secondary Teachers Association (GSTA) in protest against Sindh secretary of education and his newly-introduced ‘education management cadre’ for schoolteachers.

They sat for three hours outside Shahbaz Building which housed many government offices including offices of divisional commissioner and deputy commissioner, raising slogans against education secretary Dr Fazlullah Pechuho.

GSTA president Haji Mohammad Asraf Khaskheli, general secretary Iqbal Panhwar and other leaders who led the protest appealed to the government to abolish the new cadre and immediately remove secretary of education in the larger interest of Sindh’s education system.

Dr Pechuho had held onto the post for the past three years but failed to bring any improvement in the education system, they said, accusing him of corruption.

They alleged Dr Pechuho had already pocketed Rs280 million given by the World Bank (WB) for the purchase of furniture and scientific instruments for all schools in Sindh but no school had received any such facilities.

They said the secretary now wanted to pocket millions of rupees being released by the WB and Sindh government for improving education system. Under the new cadre 157,000 teachers of the province were being deprived of promotions and officers of district management group and revenue department officers were being inducted into the education department, they said.

They announced that they would protest outside the WB office in Islamabad on Dec 10 and then outside Bilawal House Karachi on Dec 17-18. They would continue the protest till their demands were accepted, they warned.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2014