KP govt decides to suspend protesting primary school teachers

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to immediately suspend all primary school teachers involved in a recent protest across the province.

In this regard,  the Deputy Director of Elementary and Secondary Education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has issued an order to district education officers to suspend all absent teachers.

The KP Director of Education has ordered all DEOs to collect data on “protesting teachers due to whom schools have been closed since November 5 and immediately suspend them to resume educational activities in all schools.”

The Director of Education also ordered the suspension of teachers who were not participating in the protest, but are still not attending school.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa All-Primary Teachers Association (APTA) has announced the closure of all 22,000 boys and girls primary schools across the province and staged a sit-in protest in Peshawar over the lack of job upgrades.

The key demands of the teachers’ association include official notification for teachers’ upgradation, regularisation of 13,500 teachers, reinstatement of previously forced promotions, reinstatement of the Fargo option, prevention of primary school privatization, and ensuring class-wise teacher appointments at every primary school.

As the primary teachers’ protests and school closures continued for a third day, the teachers union has stated that they are not intimidated by the threat of suspension; they have previously been jailed for their rights and are willing to make any sacrifice for their cause.

It has been reported that all primary schools across the province, including in Peshawar, remain closed in protest, although some institutes in certain areas stayed open.