GILGIT: Despite rain and winds in different parts of Gilgit-Baltistan on Saturday, government schoolteachers continued to boycott classes and hold a protest sit-infor a sixth consecutive day to press the authorities for their one-point agenda of long overdue promotions.

Academic activities at government schools across Gilgit-Baltistan have been suspended since last week, as thousands of teachers announced that they would call off their protest only when their singlepoint demand was fulfilled.

For the past five days, teachers have organised demonstrationsand rallies outside the education department offices in Hunza, Nagar, Astore, Skardu, Diamer,Ghanche, Shigar, Kharmang and Ghizer. On Friday, the protesting teachers from these districtsmarched towards Gilgit and joined the protest sit-in outside the GilgitBaltistan Directorate of Education in Gilgit, the regional headquarters, where the minister`s office is situated.

Despite harsh weather conditions on Saturday, a number of male and female government teachers continued their protest sit-in outside the GB Directorate of Education on the call of the Teachers` Coordination Committee.

The organisers said government teachers had been demanding promotions for many years. Teachers with a Bachelor of Education should be promoted to Grade 16, while those with a Certificate in Teaching should be promoted to Grade 14, they explained, but nearly 7,000 teachers despite the required qualification were ignored when the education department promoted only 300 in a `discriminatory` way.

According to them, the GBSupreme Appellate Court had directed the government to grant teachers their legitimate pay scales.

Also, the chief court ordered the implementation of the appellate court`s order for qualified teachers tobe given their due service scales.

However, the protesters said, the GB government was reluctant to implement the court order, depriving teachers of their rights.

They said many teachers despite having qualifications for promotion had been serving in same grades for more than a decade. They demanded that all CT and BEd qualified teachers be promoted to their relevant grades immediately. They said that teacher representatives had held meetings with government officials and education department heads, but the issue was ignored.

GB officials said the education department had moved an appeal before the GB Supreme Appellate Court against the decision relatedto teachers` promotion. After a court ruling on the appeal, the GB government would decide the matter accordingly.

Verification of credentials At the same time, the GB government started a large-scale verification of academic and professional credentials of teaching staff working under the school education department.

According to an official notification issued by the school education department issued on May 30, the department has directed the director general of education to carry out `a comprehensive verification exercise of all teachers working under the school education department, across all districts of Gilgit-Baltistan`.

However, the protesting teachers termed it another ploy to delay the due promotions and announced that their protest would continue till the implementation of court order.