January 22, 2024
By Asad Baloch
TURBAT
The Government Teachers’ Association (GTA) on Monday held a protest outside the Turbat Press Club against the non-payment of eight-months’ salaries of 184 intern teachers, and further demanded regularization after nearly nine years of service.
According to the GTA, the Government of Balochistan recruited 163 male and 21 female teachers on a non-permanent basis between 2014 and 2019 in order to meet the shortage of teachers in Kech and Awaran district’s public schools. Through this process, 54 schools were able to resume educational activities after prolonged closure, benefiting some 8,000 male and female students.
However, nine years later in June 2023, the government under then-Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo abruptly froze payments to non-permanent teachers and barred them from continuing to teach in public schools, the GTA claims. While this has not only exacerbated the financial troubles of the intern teachers, but the 8,000 students who were previously able to acquire an education through the scheme are being deprived as dozens of government schools in Kech and Awaran have once again closed.
The GTA has issued a memorandum to the Commissioner Makran Division, announcing a boycott of election duties if unpaid salaries were not disbursed and the status of 184 intern teachers was not upgraded by January 25.