Punjab teachers boycott assessment test over fear of failure

LAHORE: Punjab teachers completely boycotted the Training Need Assessment (TNA) test held in the province on Saturday to assess the training needs of teachers in the School Education Department (SED).
The government had designed the TNA App, developed by PMIU-PESRP, to assess the training needs of teachers in the department. It would enable efficient online testing through an MCQ-based assessment, evaluating essential teaching competencies. The app is designed to ensure seamless navigation and a smooth testing experience, effectively identifying key areas for professional development.
The department had established 720 centres to conduct the test in the province and 60 teachers were to appear for the test at each centre. Around 43,000 primary school teachers (PSTs) were to appear in the test being held in Punjab on Saturday.
The TNA was planned to be conducted from Friday and would continue on Saturday and Sunday.
Punjab Teachers Union general secretary Rana Liaqat told Dawn that only 80 teachers out of 43,000 appeared in the test in the province.
He said the teachers observed a complete strike and all the centres were empty. The test was developed in English and there was no time for its preparation.
He said that 30 to 40 per cent of teachers could not use the android application on their phone and they were also not connected to any social media platform including Facebook and Whatsapp.
He said the teachers were directed to take tests three days ago and they did not have any internet facility in their schools.
He said that the government was planning to privatise the schools and had already ‘sold’ 13,000 schools and would remove the teachers from jobs who could not pass the test.
He said the teachers should have been given time to prepare for the test and already the government was not regularising 14,000 educators and they had been protesting for many years.
He said the government was also not providing leave encashment to them.
Punjab Minister for School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat in a video statement said that the unions were misguiding the teachers and they would always ‘approach him to get personal benefits.’
He said there should be a system of accountability as a 10-marla private school has 1,500 enrollment and a 20-kanal public school working with 250 students. The salaries of public school teachers are double than those of private ones. “I love teachers who are competent.”
He said there were 80pc of hardworking teachers and he had announced prizes for them but the ‘incompetent’ teachers were leveling allegations of favouritism. “I did not know any teacher before assuming the charge of the minister and they are leveling false allegations.”He said the government carried out transfers and posting in a transparent manner and no one had to pay bribes for any posting. “Around 10 to 15pc of teachers attached with the union are propagating that the government is privatising the schools. We have not privatised a single school and will not do so in future,” he appealed to the teachers to trust the government.
He said the test was being conducted to check the competence of the teachers and they would be trained after finding [any] deficiencies.
He said there was Rs600 billion taxpayers money being spent on education every year and he appealed to the public that the government was trying to ensure quality education for children after spending so much money.
He said they were outsourcing the schools for better management and quality and it was not privatisation. They were only outsourcing 13,000 to 15,000 out of 50,000 schools of the province and were taking measures to improve the quality of education in the remaining 35,000 schools.
He said he had started profiling the union leaders who get millions of rupees salary from the government per year and did not attend the school for more than 50 days.
Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2024