The All-Primary Teachers Association (APTA) has announced that starting November 5, they will shut down 26,000 boys’ and girls’ schools across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa until their demands are addressed.
APTA also plans to stage a sit-in protest at Jinnah Park. This decision was made during a meeting of the association’s provincial officials, chaired by President Azizullah Khan at the provincial secretariat.
Azizullah Khan described the upcoming sit-in as a historic event, aimed at securing key demands, including the issuance of upgradation notifications, regularization of 13,500 teachers, reinstatement of forced promotions, and the revival of the “Fargo Option.” The protest also seeks to prevent the privatization of primary schools, ensure class-specific teacher appointments in every primary school, and create senior primary school teacher positions with specific codes in merged districts. Additionally, they are demanding that teachers regularized under the 2022 Act be included in the General Provident (GP) Fund.
APTA members, including female teachers, are expected to participate in large numbers, with a strong commitment to the sit-in, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at Jinnah Park, Peshawar, on November 5. The protest will continue indefinitely, regardless of the outcome. All 26,000 primary schools will remain closed from that date onward.
However, APTA remains open to productive negotiations, emphasizing that they prefer dialogue over protest. Earlier this month, teachers across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa held protests, threatening to paralyze the province’s education system by closing thousands of schools. Their demands include the promotion of senior teachers and the abolition of the Contributory Pension Fund.