A sit-in protest in Peshawar is scheduled to begin on November 5th, according to the All Primary Teachers Association (APTA) KP. In addition to the sit-in, there will be a full-scale strike, and all schools will be shuttered starting on that date.
Aziz Ullah, the provincial president of the APTA, declared that unless their demands were fulfilled in writing, no primary school in the province would reopen. Instead of threatening to discipline and arrest primary teachers, he asked the government to provide them their legal and legitimate rights.
He pointed out that primary teachers in Punjab, Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Islamabad make an average of grade 14, with the possibility of advancement to grade 17.
According to a top E&SEF official who spoke to Dawn, the provincial government was hesitant to provide the foundation with the Rs2 billion it needed to pay teacher wages.
He said that the foundation was not operating effectively after the departure of Zareeful Maani, the managing director of E&SEF at the time, in September 2023 because of the frequent changes in managing directors and the inaction taken to secure the distribution of funds.
The official claimed that Mr. Maani had worked tirelessly to revive the otherwise dormant foundation because previous managing directors had shown no interest in it, preferring to focus on collecting large salaries.
He said that following Ms. Maani’s removal in September 2023, the foundation was run on an as-needed basis by the elementary and secondary education department’s special secretary until Attaur Rehman was named managing director in December 2023.
According to him, Mr. Rehman was moved in August 2024, and Mian Ainullah, the managing director of the Merged Areas Education Foundation, was handed responsibility for E&SEF until Khawaja Faheem Sajjad was appointed managing director in the middle of September.
According to a teacher at a girls’ community school, community school teachers put in more effort than ordinary government school teachers, Dawn was informed.
According to her, each GCS had between 100 and 300 pupils registered since people trusted them more.
Not wanting to be identified, she stated, “We are in trouble as we have not received our salaries since March.” She claimed that because the teachers at those schools were unable to rent a Suzuki van or rikshaw for pick-up and drop-off, she had to change multiple public transportation vehicles and travel 10 kilometers to get to the school.
She claimed that in the past, her schools’ instructors had used rikshaws for pick-up and drop-off. But the government stopped paying them salary, so they couldn’t pay the driver, she continued.
The teacher claimed to be aware that the failure to pay teachers’ salaries had resulted in the closure of other GCS schools. She went on to say that if the government didn’t pay teachers right now, there was a chance that additional schools may close.
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