LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday issued show-cause notices to thousands of school teachers for boycotting the Training Need Assessment (TNA) test.
The School Education Department (SED) was conducting the tests of PSTs, ESTs, SSTs, SSSs and headmasters aimed at assessing the training requirements of teachers by evaluating essential teaching competencies. The SED had established720 centres acrossthe province, with each centre scheduled to host 60 teachers for an online MCQ-based assessment.
Around 43,000 ESTs and SSTs were to take the exams on Monday. However, on the call of boycott from Grand Teachers Alliance (GTA) Punjab, the attendance remained low at all the centres.
The government had started issuing show-cause notices to the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) office-bearers and a large number of other teachers who did not attend the exam.
The teachers will be removed from their posting and directed to report to the CEO office in the districteducation authority. The notices also available with Dawn include stoppage of salaries of the teachers.
The professor and lecturer association also demanded that the government withdraw all the showcause notices issued to the school teachers.
The Head Masters Association Punjab also announced boycott of the TNA test being held on Wednesday (tomorrow).
The SED announced that the top five teachers who appeared in centres during the last two days, each will be given Rs100,000 reward with the announcement of training in the UK.
A SED spokesperson claimed that around 1,500 teachers appeared in the examination and hundreds of show-cause notices were issued to the teachers who boycotted the exam. The SED was firm on its stance and asserting that the TNA test was crucial for determining targeted training strategies to enhance the quality of education in Punjab.
However, unions and associations were raising voices and opposing the test and the government was facing a challenge in balancing its objectives with the teachers` calls for revisions in the current assessment framework.
