What are the demands of teachers arrested during protest near Bani Gala?

Four contractually employed secondary school instructors from Punjab were arrested last week amid a protest near Bani Gala in Islamabad. The teachers were arrested for demanding permanent employment.

What are the demands of teachers?

The previous government recruited many teachers on contract in the education department from 2014 to 2018.

Teachers have been demanding  the current government make them permanent  employees. However, the previous Punjab government passed a law that recruitment in Scale 16 would be done through the Public Service Commission, and those waiting for permanent status would have to go through this test.

The secondary school teachers say that when they have already been recruited by giving the competitive examination of the NTS, then  why should they have to take the examination of the Public Service Commission again. If the previous government passed the PSC and recruited them through the NTS, They asked why should [11,000 teachers] be punished for this mistake?

The instructors demand that the controversial clause of the 2018 policy, which strangles the already recruited persons, should be removed. Moreover, all the temporary employees should be made permanent by issuing an order by the Chief Minister.

Has this ever happened before?

The PML-N government, in its tenure, by order of then Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, had made all the madrassa teachers of scale 16 recruited in 2009 permanent. Ironically, the batch of madrassa teachers was recruited without the NTS or Public Service Commission exam.

Recently, 36,000 teachers of scale 16 in KPK have been made permanent by the Chief Minister, Mahmood Khan, even though there is a requirement of the Public Service Commission for permanent status.

What are your views on this? Share with us in the comments below.