TAXILA: Teacher’s unions have protested the Punjab School Education Department’s (SED) decision to transfer dozens of headmasters and principals for showing “low” results.

Talking at a press conference on Monday, Muthahida Teachers’ Union President Hassanabdal Chapter Malik Maqsood said that the education department has transferred dozens of headmasters and principals of various high schools for securing a less then 75pc result in secondary school examinations.

He said a notification issued in this regard says that “the transfers were made on grounds of poor performance during three academic sessions, determined by calculating the grade point average based on the enrolment in class IX, subsequent appearance in the Matriculation examinations, passing out percentage, failure and quality of education in terms of grades achieved by the students”.

Mr Maqsood said that the SED had transferred these headmasters and principals to far-flung areas and declared the decision “anti-teacher”.

He added that the union will not tolerate such an action as it was taken without giving consideration to the situation under which they were working.

SED had issued targets without considering the quality of education in the province, he added.

Mr Maqsood said that in the present socio-economic conditions, achieving a 74 to 50pc result is “exemplary” as most of the students in government schools are from far-flung areas.

He said the government has continuously blamed teachers for its own shortcomings, and reminded those present that earlier in the year, the SED had sought action against the heads of public schools which had not done well in the matriculation exams under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act, 2006.

According to a letter issued to EDOs on August 17, the SED public instructions director had said that the education department wanted the heads of institutions which had performed well to be awarded appreciation letters while those with poor performance should be dealt with under the PEEDA Act 2006.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2016