Punjab teachers mobility allowance enhancement
Punjab teachers mobility allowance raised
Lahore, Nov 4: The Punjab government has enhanced the mobility allowance from Rs
450 to Rs 900 per month with effect from December 1, 2009 to all such teachers,
working in schools or against administrative posts, who are not provided
official vehicles. According to a notification on Tuesday, the revised
allowance will be provided to teachers in all districts of the province except
nine big cities where conveyance allowance was already admissible. The
Punjab government has also approved the revised rate of charge allowance for
head teachers with effect from Dec 12, 2009. The charge allowance of
head teacher (Primary) has been enhanced to Rs 500 per month from existing Rs
250, for head teacher (Elementary) Rs 700 from Rs 350, head teachers (Secondary)
Rs 1,200 from Rs 600 and principals Rs 1,500 from Rs 750. Similarly, the
charge allowance for the teachers, working against administrative posts, has
also been revised. According to the notification, the new charge
allowance is Rs 1,000 per month for AEO, Rs 1,500 for Deputy DEO, Rs 2,000 for
DEO, Rs 3,000 for EDO Education, Rs 5,000 for Divisional Director and Rs 6,000
for DPI. The Punjab Government Schools Senior Staff Association (PGSSSA)
has welcomed the increase in different allowances. The news
Post your comments
Punjab schools situation after terror attacks
Lahore: Some schools in Lahore and others elsewhere in Punjab have shut down once more
after the latest bomb blast in the city, which injured 20. Others had never
opened since the end of October, when schools across the country were closed
following the attack on the Islamic University in Islamabad. The disruption in
the life of students has been dramatic. Even during the days some schools
opened, bomb drills and other similar exercises dominated thoughts. Attendance
remained low and rumours of all kinds flew around campuses. Some schools called
in security experts to talk to staff. With the talk of bombs and hostage-taking
came fear. Accounts of 'incidents' at various schools added to this, even though
it has been impossible to separate fiction from reality. All this adds a
new dimension to society. School administrators, teachers and parents ask how
they are to cope with the situation and expect children to do the same without
creating damaging paranoia. Security guards and cameras outside gates already
contribute to this. One of the issues is that there is no way of knowing when
things may change. The factors that give rise to extremism are buried deep in
society. Already the very nature of society has changed. The toll on people is
enormous. The extent is for the moment probably not fully recognized. But the
hesitation to visit markets or parks or restaurants is everywhere. Combined with
this we have a lack of hope on other fronts. Little that is positive seems to be
happening. This lack of good news affects everyone. The absence of good
governance and the lack of law and order adds to a national sense of loss. The
question is whether we can find a way back to normalcy and how this will happen.
For the moment there are few answers. The news
Post your comments
GCUF students lock horns with admin over hostel fee
Faisalabad: Scores of Government College University Faisalabad students
-- boarders and day scholars – on Tuesday boycotted their classes to protest
against the administration for "enhancing 200 per cent hostel dues". The
university administration had enhanced hostel dues a couple of weeks ago and the
students said they had requested the hall warden and Vice-Chancellor Dr Shahid
Mehboob to withdraw the decision, but their voice had gone unheard. A
number of students of many departments gathered on campus, holding placards
inscribed with slogans in favour of their demand for withdrawal of the
additional charges. They moved around from one department to another to convey
their concerns to the authorities. After taking round of the campus,
they staged a sit-in in front of the VC office for three hours and chanted
slogans against Dr Mehboob who, they said, was making it difficult for the
students to continue their studies. The boarders said hostel dues per
semester had been enhanced from Rs3,250 to Rs9,300 which included Rs2,000 under
the head of transport service which the students had been enjoying free of
charge. The protesters took it as an opportunity to air many other
grievances; for example, they said former vice-chancellor Dr Arif Ali Zaidi had
got a generator installed for the boarders to help them study without disruption
during power suspension, which the present administration had been trying to
withdraw. The students said they took up the hostel fee enhancement
issue with Hall Warden Sibghatullah and the vice chancellor, but there was no
favourable reply from them. They said they had been forced to demonstrate
against the higher-ups. They also cited the example of the University of
Agriculture which, they said, had been charging Rs2,250 per semester from the
students (for boarding). The GCUF also should follow the same fee structure,
they added. Some students alleged that security guards had locked the
classes, prompting them to raise their voice. During protest, they said, the
hostel superintendent slapped a Telecom Engineering student for chanting slogans
against the officials. This infuriated the students who warned the security
officials against intervention. Meanwhile, the vice chancellor came out
of his office after two hours and announced that the administration had accepted
their demands. The students, however, kept chanting slogans as they described it
"a tricky game by the VC". The university security officials allegedly
manhandled some reporters and stopped them from entering the institute. "None of
the reporters should be allowed to enter the university without his permission,"
the guards quoted the VC as having directed. The students broke open the
university gate lock, enabling the mediamen to enter the institution. The VC
offered an apology to the reporters for any inconvenience caused by his
subordinates. Later, the vice chancellor held talks with a 10-member
delegation of the students and reportedly agreed on withdrawal of the decision
of new fee structure. A notification would be issued shortly, he was quoted as
saying. Vice-chancellor Dr Mehboob, however, said that the
university had not withdrawn its decision yet. He said the students had been
demanding fee structure like the one at the agri-varsity, adding that the GCUF
administration would review it and make a decision soon. He said the university
had been facing financial crunch and had enhanced the hostel fee to Rs6,600 per
semester, and not Rs9,300, as claimed by the students. As the university had
hired hostel buildings, he said, it had to bear huge rental costs. Dawn
Post your comments
GCU digitized books for blind students
Lahore: The Government College University (GCU) Centre for Special
Children (CSC) has digitized curriculum and pleasure-reading books for the
varsity's blind students besides printing them in Braille. According to
a press statement issued on Tuesday, it was revealed at the meeting held to the
review the performance of the centre and facilities being provided to the
special children. As many as 23 blind students are studying at the
university from the Intermediate to Masters classes and their all
curriculum-related books have been digitalized. The students can now memorize
these books for their examination by listening to them through computer.
"Now they don't need any special help of other students. The GCU CSC has
digitalized almost all curriculum books and now they can prepare for their
examination just with the help of a computer," said GCU CSC instructor Salman
Khalid, who is MA English from GCU and also visually challenged. The
Centre has also started facilitating the GCU blind students in taking their
exams. The centre trains them in using the computer with the help of screen
reading software, so that they can solve their papers on the computer.
The Centre has recently imported an expensive Braille Embosser which can
print any digitalised material in Braille. The centre has about 20 high-tech
computers who can easily run heavy screen reading software. Salman
Khalid said that the Centre had also provided the lectures to students in MP3
format after recording them, so that they could listen to them again and again.
The centre also has a six volume English to Urdu Braille dictionary for its
blind students. He added the centre had also extended its facilities to
the students of other university on special requests, adding all universities of
Pakistan should have such centres to enable blind students to lead a normal
life. The GCU blind students termed the centre a blessing, saying that
only visually-challenged student could understand its true importance.
Post your comments
FC College research report
Lahore: The Centre for Public Policy and Governance (CPPG) of FC College
University has issued its first policy research report "Rickshaw &
Environmental Pollution: Assessing Punjab Government's Rickshaw Policy." A press
release said the report focused on two critical issues, to what degree rickshaws
were a problem in causing noise pollution in Lahore. The news
Post your comments
LHC orders to reconstruct Chishtia School
Lahore: Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC),
Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif on Monday ordered the Chief Secretary Punjab to
reconstruct the building of Chishtia Model High School behind Civil Secretariat.
The CJ also sought compliance report in this regard from the Chief Secretary
within three months. The CS submitted before the court that 5 rooms of the said
school were demolished in order to retrieve the land from illegal occupants. APP
Post your comments
| 
