GILGIT, May 5: Hundreds of teachers belonging to community schools established under the Social Action Programme staged a protest rally on Friday to press their demand for regularisation of their service.

The protest march that started in Domiyal area was stopped by police on the Hospital Road. The protesters dispersed after staging a three-hour sit-in, as federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Tahir Iqbal assured their representatives that their problems would be solved after all aspects of the issue were examined.

The protesting teachers said that more than 540 schools established in villages of the Northern Areas in 1994 were at the brink of closure because of financial problems and ad hocism.

Local education department officials said the schools had been established or upgraded as part of political campaigns without fulfilling the requirements. They said 1,510 teachers were required to run the schools.

“Only 540 affected teachers of community schools may be compensated after provision of financial allocations and those recruited through backdoor may not be,” an official said.

The teachers said they had been paid Rs1,200 per month for the past five years but the payments had been stopped for several months because of paucity of funds.

The affected teachers said they had been serving in remote areas where regular teachers were reluctant to perform their duties.

They told reporters that they had launched strikes and protests in October 2005 and now they would be forced to shut down the community schools if their demands were not met.

They said they had decided to close their schools till June 5 to press their demands.