The total number of teachers in both public and private schools is 334,000, 35% of whom are women (1998 census). Teachers in Pakistan organize themselves informally into associations. They do not have collective bargaining rights, which is a major worker rights violation in the country. A few teacher associations have joined national trade union federations but are
non-paying affiliates because teachers associations generally do not have any institutionalized structure of dues collection. In 2004, the solidarity center began work with the Pakistan national federation of trade unions (PNFTU) to organize teachers and bring these association together under one umbrella of cooperation on common issues. The concept of establishing a teachers associations from all over Pakistan showed a willingness to join the umbrella group. Through a separate program, the solidarity center is currently working with TCOP/PWF to organize teacher associations all over Pakistan.

The solidarity center will work with the teacher consortium of Pakistan (TCOP) in 2006 to strengthen their organizational ability to promote the professional freedom of teachers and education employees, and their right to organize and participate in formulation and implementation of education policies. The solidarity center, in collaboration with the American federation of teachers (AFT), will support TCOP to convene a national meeting for national and provincial organization of TCOP. The objective of this meeting is to help improve TCOP organization structure, develop a system to collect membership dues, identify thematic areas and foster future programs to service its members. The overall goal of the program is the strengthening of the organization responses of teachers to address the prevailing problems through more effective union strategic approaches and programs. Ten people will participate in a two-day meeting to accomplish this.

The solidarity center will help build capacity of TCOP by providing support for a program consultant who will provide administrative support to TCOP and will network with its affinities. The program consultant will also monitor four national dailies and compile reports on the state of teachers in Pakistan. The program consultant will prioritize issues for reporting and release to the press in cooperation with TCOP on a quarterly basis. The solidarity center will also support TCOP to develop their own website to build knowledge base to outreach to larger number of teachers through informative materials available on their website.